>>Yeah. Live from New York. It's the Cube covering in Forum 20 >>16. Brought to you by in four. Now here's your host, Dave Volante. Yeah. Welcome back to New York City, everybody. This is the Cube, the Cube. We go out to the events, and every now and then we just have these great special segment's. And this is one of them. The only 22 is here. She's a social activist, the daughter of the famous Desmond Tutu. Lara. Logan is here. Laura's, of course, 60 Minutes correspondent and Karina Holcomb. When you hear her story, you won't believe it's super athlete. Ladies, welcome to the Cube. It's really a pleasure having you on, so we hear it in for Charles Phillips. Somehow in the in 14 gather some always gather interesting people, and then we'll start with you. You guys were just up on stage telling your stories about how you overcome amazing diversity. All happen to be women. But it's not just a story about women. We're gonna talk about the human condition and what's happening in the world and how to effect change. So tell us a little bit about your background and you know some of the challenges that you had to overcome. >>Well, I mean, I think that my background is as a black South African who grew up during a part of that system that basically said that black South Africans were not black South Africans, that we were not members off our own country. And coming out of that experience and the struggle against apartheid eight has been has been foundational for me in terms of looking at how terrible our world can be and how amazing our world could be in the people who take the time and the commitment to change the terrible into good. >>And you grew up in the heart of that time period. I remember your father was very much out spoken against, for example, the Reagan policies of constructive engagement and constructive engagement they call. He said, No, you know, bring on the pain because we'll suffer with with a purpose. That kind of dogma, if you will, is actually good dogma. In a way, is it? >>I mean, I think that there is a point where you have to decide that there is something you are willing to stand up for, and I think that the core for sanctions against apartheid South Africa. We're basically saying black South Africans are already suffering, and right now we're suffering in a system that offers us nothing. At least we know that economic pressure brought on the South African government is pressure that is working towards our liberation. And so I think that that that that example shows is basically that people don't People are not short sighted in general. Um, you know, I think that way often play to people's short sightedness in saying that is the enemy. This is what you need to be afraid off. If only we had our country back, you know, but that the reality is that most people are not short sighted and people say What? What What do we need to do to make this world better? Maybe not for me, but maybe for my Children coming after me >>and Larry your experiences. Obviously you know a lot about this this era from a different perspective, but also in your own world have overcome incredible adversity. Tell us a little bit about you know, I mean, everybody knows who you are and, you know, sees you on 60 minutes but maybe they don't know much about your background. >>I think you know one thing that people probably don't really know and understand who I am. Is that for me to sit with Naomi into meat Now? Today it's such a big thing. It's such an emotional thing because I knew her parents and in South Africa working as a journalist. I knew her father particularly well. But I met her mother in her home in the Soweto township, where, I think was your family home growing up. And, uh, people like Desmond Tutu for me have never been recognised enough for how great they were and what they gave to all of us. Many people thought the revolution in South Africa was only about liberating and freeing black people. But it wasn't because all of all of the people of South Africa who whose hearts were in that struggle, we're liberated and free Mandela and 22 and all of those people, the activists, right down to the student activists down to I mean, I knew South Africans, black South African kids who spent their lives traveling from school to school to deliver the message of Comrade Mandela in those schools, and they lived on the run and they were hunted by the security police and they gave up everything, and that message was always the same. It never varied from Mandela to to to go all the way down through the ranks of a NC because it was one that resonated with all of us because it was about freedom and justice and human rights. And my soul honestly was forged in the fire of that struggle and everything I've done since I left South Africa. Everything I've been able to do in my life, everything I've been able to overcome surviving, being gang raped in Tahrir Square in Egypt. All of that was born from the example that was set by people like know me and her parents and every black South African at that time, right, because they all suspended everything of their own in favor of the greater good. There was no talk about child abuse, you know, or domestic violence or things like that. Nothing of that nature ever made it into the national conversation because black South Africans particularly put everything aside in that for that fight for that struggle. And so the greatest lessons of my life were born there, and that place gave birth to me and gave me the ability to put myself in someone else's shoes. And I've used those lessons everywhere I've gone. And I've always been well received in Afghanistan or Iraq or all of these places, because I've never gone in with a closed heart because because black people in South Africa opened my heart and opened my mind and taught me how to think and see things from other perspectives and help me understand that my way wasn't the only way or the way I knew that was familiar might not be the best way. Sometimes it might be. I never apologize for who I am. I always stand up for what I believe in. I was raised in the country of people who stood up for what they believed in and and paid and gave everything for that literally gave everything. >>So those early days of the seed of your inspiration and a lot of it was rooted in Nonviolence, of course, a zone underpinning. There was a lot of violence, of course, at the time. >>Violence for us, you know, I grew up thinking that the police and the army were only instruments of evil. I never understood them any other way, and I had to unlearn that lesson in many respects because, for example, the American military that's often demonized. But I can tell you, I've lost count of the situations that I've seen, where the level of professionalism and humanity that has been shown by the American military has has. It is so counter to the Hollywood narrative that's out there, that every everyone joins the military because they like to kill people and don't care about human rights and don't care about doing any good. I've never found that to be true, and I really have to unlearn those lessons off. Seeing the South African military is the architect of evil. Um, and grow up, I guess, and understand the many different shades of that. >>Karina. Let's bring you into the conversation Story may not be a well known, but it's a whole that's amazing. So >>or more amazing. Super super >>athlete, more amazing super athlete went through with just an amazing experience near death experience. Tell us about your background, how you're still here. >>Yeah, I just feel so humble, you know, sitting next to these two women being me. Yeah, well, I don't know where to start. I mean, I started. I came from my mother when I was four years old. She had a major accident car accident that I was part of. And, um, we had a front front collection and she was put in a coma for four months. And when she woke up from that coma, she had to relearn how to walk. She had to relearn how to talk. She had to start all over from scratch. And she had lost all members. She had no idea who even who I waas so for me, like she survived her accident. But as a mother, she was taken away from me and for me, like I became a ever restless kid. And I think that restlessness somehow had to, you know, I had to get it out somehow. And I got this urge into into finding the things that I could master. And eventually I got into base jumping. I got into big mountain skiing and this was a way for me to channel my everyday life are coping with my everyday life because going to the mountains, Um, jumping off of a cliff, being in a situation where I felt like I could control life and death. Um, it made me feel like all of my everyday problems. They felt mundane and small, and they were nothing in comparison because I had this strength and I could master this situation. So for >>me, it >>was it was my way of dealing, you know, And, um, I lived in a dream world. You know, I I traveled the world as a professional base jumper and, ah, free skier. I was filming with one of some of the biggest companies in the world. Documentaries, action movies sponsored from top to toe. It was a dream. And then I had a major accident in 2006. I, um, hit the ground with more than 65 MPH. I crushed everything that I had from my hips and down 25 open fractures, and I was sentenced to life in a wheelchair. My doctor, he told me that I would never walk again. And you know, when you've spent your entire life, um, as an athlete, it's your job. You know, it's all your friends are doing the same like you do. But most importantly, it's your identity. And all of that is taken away from you. Just like that, you're left with nothing, and you need to start from scratch. You need to start to rebuild yourself. You need to define your values. You need to figure out who am I when I no longer have my two legs? Um, What's gonna happen with my friends there? They're going to be there for me. They're going to still be around. Am I ever going to be able to have a family of my own? You know, you you get all these questions, and there are no answers. Ah, so definitely I went through, um, some of the toughest years of my life being stuck, you know, in a rehab room, hospital room and trying to rebuild my own life. And it took me, um, took me three years to learn how to walk. It took me, uh, four years to make it back to the mountains, to my passion, to skiing, and to like to come back where I belong. And, uh, I've been continuing to work with that kind of rebuild my life and find out who I want to be. >>And then, of course, inspire others. So in the years after your accident, it's obviously very personal. You're inside your own head, wondering if you'll never be able to walk again. We have a family. But then, however you use that then as a springboard to help other people, >>well, you know my >>story. I mean, falling down from the sky is obviously not something that you do every day. But I do believe that my stories universal because we all go through adversities in life. We'll have our own personal challenges, you know? And I realized by telling my story by being honest and naked, you know, to all these strangers and by revealing my weakness, then that would be I would be able to help and inspire other people to believe in themselves, to try to find their own passion. Find out what makes them happy and, you know, maybe even teach them, like what I will or not teach them. But tell them what help for me and what actually made me continue on my journey. And, you know, I'm thinking that if I have my story and the fact that I am, you know, telling it and using my experience now into inspiring other. If I can, you know, help one person to go through his or hers adversities. If I could make one person changed his or her life for the better, it's worth while you know when my story has has been a good thing. >>So the discourse in the United States anyway, today is such a polarizing conversation. But for example, you have, on the one hand, black lives matter movement. On the other hand, people trying to question the need for that movement and it becomes a really not even a rational conversation. It becomes sort of a heated debate that's quite irrational. Why is that? Why can't we have a rational conversation about such a critical critical issues? And should we? >>Well, I mean, yes, I think that we need to, and I think that the conversation is actually not black lives matter as much as it's a conversation about race and racism in this country, and I think that the conversation about black lives matter. If it does one thing it is to highlight the fact that we haven't as the U. S. As the country ever really had a conversation about race and racism and US history and the role that race and racism has played in U. S. History. Economically, politically, socially, all of those things. And so we go through these cycles almost where we kind of stopped the conversation. And then something happens and we say, Well, we don't need the conversation. Actually, everything is fine And then something happens, and then we kind of start the conversation. But I mean, I think that it's very clear to me that it is a fundamental, quick conversation that we need as a country now. Yeah, as much as we ever have in the past. I think that, you know, there was with the election of President Obama, there was a conversation about a post racial us, which it was never, never true. But, I mean, what what it did bring up, I think, is that it brought out the residual racism in places that way thought it had seized to exist, or at least that it had been very deeply enough that it wasn't going to bother anybody. >>I don't know if you're were taught in grade school high school about Africa. I was, and we learned a lot about Europe. You heard anything about? Of course. You were educated. >>We grew up in Africa. >>Much about effort. Did not continent either? No, no, no. No >>African history to go to South Africa to learn >>we had to educate ourselves. >>Okay, >>wait. Do way. Learn about Yes. Okay, we do an end for me. I mean, we just had a brief conversation about it because watching the news, I mean, coming from Norway, coming from Europe. But we obviously live in a completely different world, and we have a totally different relationship to the police. We have a different relationship to black people to yell, I don't know to call to me. We're all people. And of course, we have racism in Norway as everywhere else in the world. But it's so it's not understandable that we can actually treat people like that. And for me, I mean human life. It's like a kid. It's a kid, it's still a kid. And I don't understand how we can see and not see the kids that we all see. I mean, >>but are we making progress? There is. We're just not making progress fast enough Or are we just going sideways? >>Well, you know, for me, as a white South African growing up in a country that was the prior of the world, I actually grew up thinking that racism was a South African thing. I didn't know any better. And I thought when I left the borders of South Africa that I would be leaving racism behind. And instead what I found was that it was everywhere. And then it has helped me understand many conflicts when I was in Kosovo and I would listen to the Serbian people talk about the Albanians, you could have substituted black and white in that conversation, and it was so it was easy for me to identify what that conflict was really about. At its heart was that the Serbs don't view the Albanians as human beings. They see them as as less and is worthless. And, you know you can have the same conversation in Australia. And when I came to the United States, I was shocked to find that people when I went to places like Atlanta, people would say, Well, that's, you know, the black side of Atlanta and that's the white side. And I was like, Why they say that? Say that to me again and on and that was really an education for me, and I found that our lives in South Africa were much more integrated in many, many respects than in the United States. Just because you had 40 million or so black people in five million also white people, and so a degree in level of integration that's unheard of in many parts off America was normal in South Africa, even under apartheid, That didn't that didn't explain or excuse the racist side of the ideology that existed at the time. But so for me, and I'm always very careful because, you know, I'm not American and I didn't grow up here. But my Children are born here and my husband is American in my life is invested in the values that make America the South African Constitution that was written in part by Naomi's father and certainly was formed by his actions and the commitment that he made throughout his life is based on the United States Constitution. And one thing I like to tell people here is you may have learned about the constitution growing up in high school. But I lived that I was on the streets of South Africa when you would have 50,000, 100,000, 150,000 people come to protest for Nelson Mandela and would walk holding hands, singing that the national anthem, which was banned at the time and literally have the riot police and watch people fall as the bullets, you know? Okay, the rubber bullets hit them and rubber bullets can kill. And I would go into the homes of people whose Children had died protesting and, you know, had been executed in the back of the head and their bodies cost aside by the South African police. And so for me, freedom of speech is not something theoretical. It's not something academic. It's not a great idea that the forefathers came up with its something that lives and breathes in my blood and in my DNA and in my my dreams and then everything that makes me human. And so it's I hate it when people say, Oh, you're an adrenaline junkie. You like to go to war. I don't like to go to war. I like to go to places where those values are being tested. And I believe what Mandela always taught and two to lived that you have. The people are the founders off the democracy. And I think the sheriff in Dallas just said a similar thing in his press conference recently. Democracy is nothing without the people that we hold our leaders accountable. And if we don't hold our leaders accountable and we don't hold out, press accountable, then we don't have democracy. You have some fake version of it. And I think sometimes people have forgotten that that freedom isn't free and that means many different things. But it means getting off your but, you know, and getting out there and standing up for what you believe in in one form a way or another. So you know I'm not so I don't think it's my place to say whether we met. Have we made who is we? Have we made progress? Have we not? I can tell you what you know what One of the senior black people in law enforcement and the FBI said to me on my way. When I saw him on their way here, his version of it compared to. You know, one of the guys in New York on the street last night was talking to me about last night and their views was so different. And and I and I looked at CNN last I didn't. They had three black congressmen, all you know, from those district all talking about that. But you do have free black congressmen representing those district's, and that counts for something. But it doesn't mean that everything is fixed. One of my closest friends in the United States shows where she was going to live specifically because she had to black babies and she didn't want her son's growing up in a certain part of New York, where she said, I wasn't gonna have a moment piece knowing that they were out on those streets. So she took them to a Jewish name, a white Jewish neighborhood you know of Scarsdale, because she felt they'd be safer there. So So there's there's one thing I learned in my job is that the closer you get to an issue, the more complex it becomes. My mother used to say, The older I get, the less I know you're more you learned unless you know. >>Okay, so I'm fortunate we're out of time. I could go forever with you. Three amazing women. But last question, maybe each of you could address. >>I'd like to know one thing, though, because I always like to start with the little things. And I would like to learn from YouTube if I were to do one thing you know, to make the situation better. To try to eliminate the fear of the black people of of apartheid, of racism. What would I do if I wanted to start just little by little, to make it better? How could I do >>talking as a black as a black person? I always I always say that for me. The first step that I would like people to make is to acknowledge that racism exists because I think that's so very often that what we're up against, people saying, Well, you're just imagining all of this and the practical ways I mean, so one practical way for me, which I have asked of people, is that when you see when you're in a shop, for instance, and you see security following a black woman, which is my experience, I'm shopping and all of a sudden security is for some reason. I look particularly suspicious that when you see that and you see me turn and ask the security guard, why is that? You're following me in particular And then they say something like, Oh, I wasn't following you in particular, why you're getting all the say no as a white person to stand and say I saw that, too. And I am going to make I'm gonna make make it clear that this is not some crazy, angry black woman playing out here in the department store, the grocery store. This is a reality of people's lives. And again, as you say, it's one small step, and it makes a difference in one person's life in that particular instance. But it also is a step off, say, acknowledging that racism is something that exists in our communities. >>That's really true. Tangible frustration. Isn't that great insight from people of color that you talk to get pulled over? You can hear their sense of frustration, and they say you, as a white person, don't understand what it's like. You have to say I certainly don't Unfortunately I say we have to leave it there. Thank you so much. >>Thank you >>for coming on the Cube. Great to meet you all, >>and just so we don't get into trouble. The other side of that is I have a friend who's husband is a policeman, who every time he walks out the door every night, she doesn't know if he's coming home judgment. She lives in that kind of fear. You know, >>anybody puts on a uniform >>which is not justifying >>or something, but that's not the other side of the story. That's my point is that there are black policemen. But it's like eight time. We talk about racism. It's as though we're saying we're attacking the police, which has never been what black lives. >>We talk about things without that. But I also >>believe that it has a lot to do with information, lack of information, like you're saying that you're not even talked in school and we do naturally have fear of the unknown, and I fear everything that I don't know anything about. And so if I don't know about South Africa, if I don't learn from from school, I will naturally have fear because I don't understand you. I don't I don't see your different from over me. >>So that's where for me? It began at home where I was raised in a home where we were taught not to fear anything. Yeah, and we were told to be open to people and we would talk to listen. And we were told to know what we stood for and not be afraid to stand up for that. And that's the universal thing that you talk about. That's the thing that you can take anywhere. And so, for one small thing I can do is make sure my Children don't see color their whole lives. They've seen they've had. We've had people sleeping in our house, from Africa, from Afghanistan from everywhere. They learn all about little bits about different religions. They have African costumes and closets. They have, you know, traditional Pashtun dress and, you know, they they learn about everything. And I'm honest with them with the things I don't like about it. You know, I don't want my child, my daughter, to grow up wearing a burka, not allowed to have a driver's license or anything. You know, I am honest about the fact that I don't like that. I don't think political correctness means you have to say that everything about everyone else is wonderful to me. It's about it's about those things that bind all of us that are universally good and university just And you have to have the courage to stand up for that and also have the courage to say, You know what? I don't I don't actually believe in that side of it. I don't actually think that that's right And that's the next step off the conversation. It's not enough to just all hold hands and sing, come by and say, Oh, everybody's great, We accept everybody and it's a wonderful I did a panel with old with representative of the Dalai Lama and the chief rabbi of the United States and one of the senior archbishops in the country and all these different religions. Every religion was represented, and about halfway through I said, Okay, enough, enough of this conversation. Let's talk about what you don't like about each other's religions because that's what separates us. It's not what we like about each other and accept about each other and doesn't frighten us about each other. That that creates the problems. It's what we don't and everyone you know. That conversation broke down very quickly at that point, and it went from being a love fest. Two very clear. Now, you started to see that each person thought their religion was superior understanding >>as well. >>And that's what leads to understanding that. You have to understand that in order to be able to change the conversation at >>all. Wonderful. Thank you all >>for coming. Thank you. Thank you, Thank you. >>Keep it right there, everybody. We'll be back. Wow. What a great segment. >>Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

>> Live from Washington, D.C., it's theCUBE. Covering Inforum DC 2018. Brought to you by Infor. >> Good afternoon and welcome back to Inforum 2018. Our coverage here on theCUBE as we start to wrap up our two days of coverage here at the show. We're in Washington, D.C. at the Walter Washington Convention Center, along with Dave Vellante, John Walls here. We're joined now by Mayumi Hiramatsu, who is the SVP of Cloud Operations Engineering and Security at Infor. Mayumi, how are you doing? >> Great to be here, thanks for coming. >> And a recent honoree by the way, Woman of the Year at the Women in IT Awards, so congratulations on that. (clapping) >> Awesome! >> Thank you. >> Very nice honor. >> Great. >> Tell us... big picture here, cloud strategy as far as Infor is concerned and why that separates you from the pack. What makes that stand out, you think, from your peers? >> I think there are a couple of things. One is that when I think of cloud, a lot of people will think about cloud as, it's a software running in the cloud, but it's more than that. It's about the solution and the capabilities that we're building on the cloud. And Infor is perfect, in that we're building enterprise software solutions. So if you look at Infor and compare us to the competition, we may have multiple of competition wrapped together in a solution. And that's really powerful, and you can only do that, really well, in the cloud because it's already built for that. It's integrated and the power of data is really amazing, because when you think about cloud, it's not just the software, it's the data, what you can do with it. And with the latest technologies around artificial intelligence and machine learning, there is so much insight we can give to our enterprise customers to make them successful in their business. So, I think of cloud as not only the technology, which I love, because I'm actually an engineer, but it's really the business transformation, digital transformation that the cloud enables, with the technologies like artificial intelligence, data analytics, data science, machine learning. There's just so much bolted on, that you can really only do in the cloud. >> Can you help us understand that competitive nuance? >> Yeah. >> I'm not sure I fully understand, 'cause others will say, well, we have cloud too. What's different between the way in which you provide solutions in the cloud and... pick a company. >> Yeah. >> Another company says, we have cloud, all of our SaaS is in the cloud. >> Right, so I think the first thing is, Infor's always focused on solutions, which means that our competition may have one of, let's say, a dozen things that we put together. So, if you're using our competition, they may have a cloud and some of them were born in the cloud, but then you have to figure out, how do I integrate it with the rest of the world? Because if you think about it, ERP. It's running your business. And it might be your HR and about your employees. It might be CRM and customer information. It could be supply chain and figuring out what parts I need to buy. It could be billing and figuring out how do I bill my customers. All these different solutions today, if you look at our competition, they may solve one, two, three different portions, but certainly not a dozen of these all together and then tailored towards the industry. So, we can pretty much bolt on and get started pretty quickly, if you think about, for example, healthcare. We already have a healthcare solution ready to go, so you don't have to figure out how do I put 12, 15 different software, glue it together and make it work? And maybe some of it is running in the cloud, maybe some of it is not running in the cloud, then the integration and making it work gets really complex. But ours is already pre-built, ready for that, whether it's healthcare, manufacturing, food & beverage, fashion. We have a lot of these already ready to go, so then you just have to customize it, as opposed to starting from scratch, figuring out how to integrate all these different software, making sure they work together and then harnessing the data, and then adding all these different, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that is so powerful today. You can't do that without the cloud and you certainly can't do it if you're trying to glue together different solutions. It's just really not easy. And I'll add one more thing, I was talking to a customer about this today, which I thought was brilliant. The other thing is security. Most people worry about security in the cloud and I run our security as well, the Chief Information Security Officer reports in to me and the whole security team does. And I can tell you, if you're combining 12, 15 different types of software and trying to have consistent security all across? Oh, that's a very difficult thing to do. But we've already figured it out. So all you have to do is buy the package, the solution, it' already working together. You already have security overlay on it. They have consistency in terms of how we manage the security, whether it's single sign-on and who has access, and making sure that that gets all the way through, all the way up to the data lake, where all of the data gets captured, all the way up to the artificial intelligence. So, if you think about security and how important that is, and how difficult it might be to do on one software, let alone a dozen software, the fact that we've already built that, is a big differentiator. >> So it's all there, and when you talked about, all you have to do is customize it, you're talking about, you're not talking about hardcore coding, you're talking about things like naming and setting it up. Is that right? >> Yeah, and-- >> Or are you talking about deeper levels of custom mods? >> In our multi-tenant cloud, we don't do mods, but instead, we have extensions. And extensibility is really important because now those are, again, essentially plug-and-play. We already built it for you, so it's so much easier than creating each piece of code every single time. Again, it's about, how do you make sure that you can integrate these very important sets of business processes together. Not only how quickly can you use it, how secure is it? And ensuring that you can actually focus on your business value, right, because trying to assemble all of this together and making it work, it's an enormous amount of work and I think, as an enterprise, you want to focus on actually giving customer value instead of trying to figure out, the mechanics underneath the hood. >> I mean, you certainly get the value of cloud software, right, and cloud ERP. Who doesn't? Like out of the industries that you're trying to, get in front of or whose attention you're trying to get. Where's the, if there's someone that's kicking and screaming a little bit, who might that be or what might that be? >> I don't think that there's a specific industry, if you will, I think some industries, in fact, and when I think about it, all industries are getting disrupted, right? If they don't, they're actually getting left behind. So, I think some industries feel it more, as in, they might be behind the curve. And I wouldn't necessarily say industry, maybe some of the companies in that industry. >> Companies within? >> Yeah, are waking up to it. I went to a Gartner Supply Chain Conference a couple years ago and they were talking about bimodal supply chain, right. You have the teams that are doing the old way and then companies that are doing the new way. And companies are literally going through this shift. And I had this interesting conversation that it's really not bimodal. Companies are essentially somewhere in that spectrum and what they need to do is figure out from point A to point B and how you make that transition. It's a huge transition. I would also say that there's a cultural element as well, and so one of the key things that, especially for companies that are moving from on-prem to cloud. As a provider, it's really important to realize it's a completely different business model. And it's not always talked about, again, a lot of times people think, oh well, you know, Infor, you just moved the software into AWS and you're calling it SaaS. It's more than that. Besides the capabilities, its a huge cultural shift that even Charles talked about on-stage, which is that, software companies you focus on the product, versus, as a SaaS, the last 'S', Software as a Service, you are focusing on the service. So, the analogy I use a lot is, maybe we were actually a food company, we'd build beautiful food, delicious food, nutritious food, maybe it was a rotisserie chicken, right? But now I switch to a restaurant. Food is only table stakes. And you know, restaurant reviews is about services, the ambiance, how quickly you respond, how clean it is, all these other elements matter. And if you think about Infor or any other company for that matter, that we're focused on product and software, to then becoming a SaaS service provider, it's a huge transformation for a company, and I can tell you we're going through that, right? Infor as an on-prem company moving to the SaaS, and there's so much focus now on customer experience, is because realizing that we're no longer a software company, we're a Software as a Service company. And there's a lot more we need to put in, in terms of making sure the customer experience is good. As our customers go through the same journey, they also need to realize, it's no longer about providing that product, but the experience that they're providing to the customers, and we see our customers actually going through that journey. Some might be harder to move within whatever industry, because maybe they have legacy product, legacy machines, right, to be able to lift and ship to quickly. But there's definitely a path, and if you think about some of these industries that's been around for a long time, they're definitely going through this transition, and in fact, I think they have to. >> So how did you set priorities in terms of, you come to that recognition that we're services, in the cloud. Luckily, you don't have to manage data centers, so you could take that off the table, so what were your priorities and where did you start, and what are you focused on now? >> One of the first things that I did was really pushing this cultural shift for the company, because a lot of people, some people may think, okay, it's software, I'm putting in the AWS, it's cloud. But all the other service elements, like that restaurant analogy, it wasn't mature in terms of where we needed to be and therefore you hear a lot about customer experience and customer success and a lot of these elements that we really have to put more emphasis on. But the other areas that I focused, so I came in, I focused on cloud operations, security, tooling, and architecture, that was the set that I was focused on. What I did was essentially transformation, right, it's People Process Technology in addition to culture, so culture we already talked about, the sense of urgency is very different as well. On-prem, maybe you don't have to respond in two seconds, but in cloud, you do, and so making sure that we had crisp KPIs, which are different than on-prem, making sure that processes were completely redefined. I've actually done benchmark with our competition to see that our SLAs and KPIs are either on par or better. I'm a big proponent of engineering and technology, so we built a lot of technology monitoring, tooling, so that we can do a lot more in terms of self-service and automation, that's really the only to scale, and execute consistently. Spent a lot of time over the last year, literally re-defining the identity of our jobs to how do we make sure we have the right skillset, and retraining some of the folks who may have a new identity and they need to learn new skills, to coming up with new tools and technologies that they can use, to changing our processes so we can up our SLA and make sure that we're either meeting or beating our customers' SLAs, complete transformation in the last year. >> You must be exhausted. (laughs) >> When do you sleep? >> I don't sleep much, but... >> You must not. >> So, new metrics, this is intriguing to me. Can you give us an example of sort of this, new KPIs as a result of this cloud, SaaS world? >> Yeah, for sure. I think every company has their own sort of core KPIs that are public, and cloud is usually uptime, right? If you have support, it could be how quickly you respond, we call it mean time to respond. Underneath the hood, I've created key KPIs for, what I call, critical cloud qualities. One is, of course, reliability, so that would be in addition to uptime, like 99.7%, which is two hours and 11 minutes by the way, per month downtime, so making sure that we're actually meeting that. >> Sorry, just to interrupt. >> Yeah. >> You're measuring from the application view right, not the green light on the server, is that fair? >> That's a great question, because that is exactly the evolution we want as well, so when I talk about the transformation at my organization, we were measuring the hardware first. We are now measuring, essentially, outages. So I don't care if the server's still running, but if the customers can't log in, it's an outage, right? But that's not something you can monitor by looking at a server because sometimes the server's up and running. But maybe a process went down. >> System's fine. >> Exactly. So that's the monitoring-- >> Okay, so slight adjustment in the typical metrics, sorry to interrupt, but please carry on. >> That was a perfect question. >> Okay. >> So KPIs, so underneath the hood, so here are some examples of metrics for availability. Mean time to detect, that's an internal metric, and my internal metric is five minutes, meaning, if you don't know we have an issue in five minutes, it's probably not automated and monitored, so we better hook up some additional monitoring as an example. Mean time to respond, that's a very public one, a lot of times, customers demand that, and if you look at competition, that is the only metric that's actually public, potentially even on a contract, right? So we have mean time to respond, we also have mean time to resolution, that's usually an internal metric. I'm sure competition has that as well, but making sure that we have that response right away, because it's one thing to respond, but if it's not resolved as quickly, it's not good. Other metrics when it comes to reliability, mean time to communicate. And this is really interesting. One of the things that I found was, we could be working on something but we're not telling the customers, so they're wondering if we're actually sleeping on the job, even though we're actually actively working in the background, right? >> Did they get the message, right? >> Right, so mean time to communicate, as an example of reliability metrics. So reliability is one of the core tenets. The other tenets? Performance, how quickly do you respond, right? And I always say that if performance is too long, it's equivalent of being down. Imagine if you're using Google and you put a search in, and it takes you three minutes to get a response time, you probably have left by then. So that performance, page load time, page response time, these response times actually matter. So we have actually metrics around that and we monitor and manage them. Security, we have a boatload of security KPIs, whether it's number of critical vulnerabilities, how quickly we respond to security incidents, a boatload of those as well, and then, last but not least, agility. So how quickly we can respond if we have to do a deployment. So what that means is, let's say, every software company has a bug, and let's say we actually had to quickly respond to that, can we do it within 24 hours if we needed to? Security is a perfect example. A mature company should be able to say, okay, there was a security alert that got to the industry, right? We should be able to quickly respond to that and apply a patch immediately and address it. A company that may not be so mature, it might take them months to go through thousands of machines. So I call that time to market, how quickly can we actually deploy something, and that's not just deploying it, but testing it and making sure it's not going to break anything and be able to test it and verify it. So these are examples of metrics-- >> Great examples. Are your SLAs... for a SaaS company, your SLAs presumably have to be more strict than you'll contractually agree to, but maybe not, then your typical SLA out of AWS or Google, or Microsoft Azure. Is that true? >> Yes. >> So you guys will commit contractually to these types of SLAs that you would expect in an enterprise, versus kind of the standard, off-the-shelf AWS SLA, and how do you reconcile the gap or do you have a different agreement with AWS? >> We do have a... The SLA is pretty much standard when it comes to AWS specifically, right? >> 'Cause they want-- >> Yeah. >> Homogeneity. >> Exactly. So I think the challenge is, every SaaS provider needs to architect around it and when you think about it, hardware failure rate is usually 4% industry-wide. You can expect the hardware will go down, right? >> Yep. >> Network goes down, various things go down. So then it's our job that sits on top of it, to make sure that we build it for reliability. Perhaps we actually have redundancy built-in, and we can actually go from one side to the other, we have that, for example. So if AWS goes down, and they do, all right? I ran data centers for many, many years, it happens. It's our job to make sure that we can fail over it, and not have that customer experience, so it's an overlay availability that we have to build-- >> You're architecting recovery into the system, I know we're tight on time, but I got to ask you, 'cause Pam couldn't make it today. You're part of the WIN, the Women Infor Network, I presume, right? >> Yes. >> So maybe we can just talk a little about that-- >> Yeah. >> It's a great topic. >> Women in technology, right? >> I got some of the best interviews at Infor shows with women, Deborah Norville came on, Naomi Tutu, Lara Logan. Just some awesome folks, but so-- >> So your thoughts, we know you're passionate about the role of women in technology, so how you feel about that, if you want, and Infor, what's being done, or what can be done about that? >> Great questions. So I'm a big proponent of women in technology. Partly because I went through my pain, right, I've always been a small percentage in terms of engineering role as female in technology. I'm also a board member of Girls in Tech, and I channel my energy that way as well as I try to mentor and help others, for example, mentoring engineering students at Berkeley. I'm a Berkeley alum. And I think it's really important that we get more women in technology and keep in them in technology, and candidly, our latest trend is actually going down. So the reason why I think it's important, besides making sure that everybody has a chance, and all those good reasons, we have statistics that actually show, the more diversity you have, the better your product is going to be, and the better it's actually going to hit your top line revenue. And over and over again, whether it's women in the board seat, or women executives, or women engineers, no matter where, by getting women's input into technology, you're actually representing 50% of the consumer base. >> The user base, right. >> Right and so, if we don't do that as a company, we're actually not going to be able to get the user base feedback and I think it's so really important, not only for the economy to have those wonderful workforce in the job, but also for the company products to actually reflect the user's needs and actually improve the revenue, right? So from that perspective, I think it's really important, I love the fact that at Infor, we do a couple of things when it comes to diversity. So one, is WIN, as you know, Women Infor Network. I think it's a fabulous program, and in fact, I get a lot of male colleagues saying they want to join WIN, and they do. My last session, there were actually women and men joining it, because it's really about leadership and how do we cultivate our next, next talented workforce to be successful. The other one is EAP, the Infor Education Alliance Program, so that not only looks at women, but just diversity, right, and bringing students into this workforce. I think it's a great way to help the economy, help the products, help the company. And at the end of the day, why not? >> You're awesome, super impressive and articulate, and really self-confident, and hopefully an inspiration for young women out there watching, so thank you so much, really appreciate it. >> And hope you get some sleep sometime too. (laughing) >> Thank you. >> Busy, busy schedule. All right, thank you. Thank you Mayumi. We're back with more here on theCUBE, you are watching us live in Washington, D.C., and we'll be right back. (upbeat music)

>> Announcer: Live from Nassau in the Bahamas, it's theCUBE, covering Polygon 18, brought to you by Polymax. >> Hello, welcome back to our live coverage of this exclusive Cube coverage in the Bahamas for PolyCon 18. It's cryptocurrency, it's token economics, its de-centralized world, it's all about the future of the Internet, Dave. I'm with Dave Vellante here, our next guest is Margaux Avedisian, EVP of Transform Group, and partner and co-founder of Cool Pool Fund. Great to have you on. Thanks for joining us. >> Yeah, thanks for having me. >> So you're on the Women's Panel. I saw you up there: Women in Crypto one of our big focus areas this year, as well as Crypto for Good. So super excited to have a conversation with you, but first take a step back. Introduce yourself, what are you workin' on? What's cool? What's gettin' you excited in the space, in life? What is the crypto thing? What does it mean to you? >> Sure, so I lived in San Francisco in 2011, so I had a bunch of nerd friends, and you know, I heard about this crazy crypto currency called Bitcoin. I had free office space for my startup, so that meant free electricity, so I was like, oh, let's start mining, 'cause we have free electricity. You know, we're not really raisin' money with this thing. (laughter) And I ended up not doing that. I thought that'd be a jerk thing, but I'd be retired by now, so kind of regretting that decision. So 2012, I met the people who were re-launching the first American bitcoin exchange, Trade Hill. I ended up joining that, and at that time, I used to say, oh, I'm the leading woman in bitcoin, but I was also the only woman in bitcoin. (laughter) And then after that, I ended up co-founding another bitcoin exchange called Alpha Coin, which pivoted still around, and then I co-founded another exchange called Magnetico, pivoted also still around, and then I joined Transform Group as EVP, and we're the leading PR firm in the bitcoin and blockchain ICO space. So we've done most of the big ICOs. We did Ethereum, Auger, Made Safe, Gollum, Nosis, Quantum, Unicoin, Wax, Bancor, et cetera. We've done over 70, 60 at this point, so I have a lot of experience seeing ICOs, how they've kind of changed and evolved. Then I started a pre-ICO syndicate, so getting in before the public sale, getting a super discount, which then turned into a fund, because people were like, can I just give you money? This is really complicated, like I don't know what I'm doing, so I was like forced. My hand was forced. (chuckling) >> Yeah, I'll take your cash. Just send it to me. No contract. >> Well no no no, actually the space, you really have to have a team of lawyers. It, you know, they're not too big to fail. >> Just take the cash and say you were hacked, and then disappear, right? >> Yeah you know, that's getting a little more difficult to do that. It looks like they're tracking now. >> Margaux wouldn't steal electricity. (laughter) She's not going to do that. >> That's actually true. >> Of course, I'm being facetious. I'm a comedian, for crying out loud. I'm trying to get her on a roll, here. Okay, funniest story in crypto for you right now that you've seen, could be back in history in time. >> Yeah. >> What's the funniest thing you've seen? Or the most outrageous thing? >> Is this PG? Or like, what can I? >> It's Internet, it's unrated. It's NC-17 or unrated. >> Alright, you mean the time when one of the crypto, hedge fund people took a ton of liquid acid and then I had to take care of him, and he ended up eating all of my birth control pills, and I had to take him to the hospital because I thought he was going to die. (laughter) So that was pretty crazy. >> Anchor: OD'd on birth control pills. That's a first. >> That would be a first. >> 'Cause the only person that was awake at the time that I could ask who was a chemist and who was an EMT said his body temperature, but when I took him to the hospital, the nurses, I thought he was going to die, and then the nurses are all like, well, he's not going to get his period. (laughter) >> That's for sure. >> I'm like, is he going to die? They're like, bring him back if he's spotting. (laughter) I'm like, so he's okay? He's alright? And so, yeah, it was fun, they were like, we're more worried about the acid. So, yeah that's I guess maybe up there in the top five. >> So you've seen 60, 70, you've seen a lot. You've got a good observation space. Tell us what that's like, I mean, public relations for me is hard, like messaging, I don't have that gene, as you know, John. So, how have you been able to shape it. Do you get a lot of 'em and just go oh no, these guys really need tons of help, or take us through some of the examples, maybe not specifically but just generally how you would approach that problem. >> Sure, so first of all, we don't just take anyone. We do vetting and it has to have a story we can sell. Luckily at our firm, we have a lot of people, including the founder Michael Turpin and myself, who have a background in this space, so we understand really what they're saying. And our job, really, is to break it down so regular people understand what the heck we're talking about and why it's important. So I think a lot of, part of the problem with people not getting into crypto currency is that they get too hung up on the technical details. You know, I don't know how my television turns on. I don't know how my debit card works. There's so many things we do without knowing the technical backgrounds of it, and we don't get hung up on that. And for some reason, this industry, people get really hung up on the technology instead of understanding the uses and the purpose of it, and so that's what we really do. We talk about what is the purpose of this? How is this important? How is this changing an industry? And relating it, maybe, to news that's going on right then. So it's really just making it understandable to regular people. >> Yeah, some of the women in crypto conversation, women in tech >> Sure. >> Dave and I have a passion for this because we have a lot of women friends that are either executives and or in good positions, and we interview them, like they were a guy. So we never really got into that whole thing. Turns out we got a big library of women in tech, and it's been so politicized and it's so important. And certainly we agree that, you got to do all that, but if we're even having the conversation, that makes it a problem. So at what point, then, do we need to do kind of keep the vibe going to saying, okay, let's focus on positive, and what's your just view of how to make it engaging, 'cause women make up 50% of the population. >> Yeah. >> And so, what do we do? >> First, I want to say, there are actually some badass women in crypto. Two of the biggest ICOs had female founders. They're Bancor and Tezos. I would say more than you would expect, but they're not as loud and brash as I am, so it might be harder for you to see them. Conferences definitely need to be putting more women on these panels. >> This conference here has a lot of representation, by far, really strong. >> Yeah, well, to be honest, like putting me on a Women in Blockchain panel. I love talking to women, and it's inspiring them, and telling them you can do it, 'cause part of the thing is, nobody's a blockchain expert, alright? There's no such thing because it's just changing so fast. There's too much information out there. And I think sometimes women get hung up on needing to know everything before they do something, and I like to say, you know, probably 80% of the men here have no idea what they're talking about. So, you don't have to >> John: I mean, always be learning in this space. This is an evolution. >> Yeah, and in doing, when I first got into this space and started the first American bitcoin exchange, I didn't even know what an exchange was, you know? But I met one of the co-founders of YouTube, who was into bitcoin, who had a fund, and I ended up leveraging that to get into this, and I learned as I went, and what's so exciting right now about blockchain is that it's really integrated in pretty much every industry you can imagine. I mean, people are doing ICOs in health care, in fashion, in anything you can think of. So if you have experience and skills in one industry, you can then leverage that in another. So if you're a woman in finance, guess what? If you join someone's ICO, and they have someone from a traditional finance world, you're lending credibility, and that's valuable. And that kind of experience, and we need to bring more mature industries into blockchain. >> This is what I think, I mean, you've heard me say this, like never before, you could see, because it's digital, because it's data, as blockchain is, people can traverse industries like never before. >> Yeah. >> It used to be, if you're in health care, you're in health care for life, that's it. >> Yeah. >> But some of the digital skills that people are learning are applicable to other industries. Do you feel like, I think you just said it, that that will promote more woman involvement. You're saying it's disproportionately high here. I don't know. >> I thought it was a little interesting that they put me on a Women in Blockchain panel instead of putting me on a panel that I could talk about my experience, since I have a lot. >> Dave: That's my point. >> Instead of that. >> Winning Women, or whatever, I mean. >> Well, I wouldn't segregate all the women into one panel. I would want to put them on other panels, I mean. >> Yeah, I mean you want to put them on panels where there are pros, and they can do the job independently. >> Exactly. >> Just being a player. >> Alright, Margaux. >> A lot of women say that though. They say, let's not make this about women in tech or you know Lara Logan, and that crew, Naomi Tutu. It all depends >> And so their social justice gene >> but I'm curious how do you feel about that? It was shining a light on whether it's women in tech or women in crypto, does that, is that offensive to you? Do you welcome that? Some welcome it, others? >> I think it's weird because I've been in this industry for so long, and now I think it's good that it's becoming a topic, but it was never anything that I even paid attention to. In fact, I'd rather focus on the positives, 'cause being a woman in this industry is great because, guess what, I can just say whatever I want. I can get away with saying things and calling out the elephant in the room where most men can't. But it's, I think part of the problem is these guys here want to hire women, but how do they find them? And I just had someone come up to me from Zedd saying, we want to hire a female CMO, like how do we find that? And the jobs are out there, it's about being able to get these women who want to do this and connecting them to opportunities. bUt on the other hand, women really need to be more assertive and be like hey, I don't know anything about blockchain, but I want to learn. So I'm going to go to a conference instead of being like I don't know anything, and I'm scared, so I don't want to go to a conference, you know? Like I said, most men don't know what they're talking about here. >> Well I mean, everyone's learning. We're trying to figure it out. Margaux, thanks for coming on, appreciate it. >> Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >> We're looking for the stand-up comedian act. We'll get that on our next episode Thanks for comin' on. >> Yeah! And check out my videos, too, if you want. >> Alright, what's your YouTube address? >> It's youtube.com/margauxwithanx. Thank you. >> Alright, we'll put it on the blog. We'll be back with more live coverage after this short break. (electronic music)

>> Announcer: Live from the Javits Center in New York City, it's theCUBE. Covering Inforum 2017, brought to you by Infor. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Inforum 2017, I am your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, Dave Vellante. We are joined by Chip Coyle. He is Infor's CMO. Thanks so much for sitting down with theCUBE today. >> Thank you for having me. >> So we just kicked off the show, the general session, Charles Philips, a lot of other Infor executives up there on the main stage talking. Lay it out for us. How many people are here. What are sort of the big themes that you're trying to get across here. >> Yeah, well, first of all it's great for Infor to be having our conference here at the Javits Center. It's about 10 blocks from our home-- >> Rebecca: Your own back yard. >> In New York City, and so this year, we've got nearly 7,000 attendees over the course of the week. Many component programs as we do every year with our partner summit, with our various conferences for the different individual customer constituencies, and executive forum, and of course, a big customer appreciation event happening tomorrow night. >> You've also made some big announcements. I'm talking mostly about Coleman AI, and Burst. I want you, if you can unpack those for our viewers a little bit. >> Yeah, I would say the theme of the conference this year is the age of networked intelligence. And what does that mean? Well, we've had, for the last several years, a layered strategy in our business, starting at the foundation with very deep industry functional applications. Purpose built for the different industries. We've taken all of that technology and moved it to the cloud, so that you get the benefits of the efficiencies and the network capability of taking your applications to the cloud. We recently, a year ago, acquired GT Nexus, which expands our capability, in a broader sense, to a commerce network, and we're able to incorporate that into our traditional applications in different industries. And then, just a couple of months ago, we acquired a business intelligence software company, Burst, which brings some really great technology for business intelligence that we can layer on top of all of our applications in this network environment. And then finally, today, the big announcement was Coleman, as you said, and that was to take our new artificial intelligence platform and really create just profound new ways that the workers in the different industries and their different companies across the networked enterprise, can interact in a business setting, much like people do in a commercial setting today. >> Can you, Chip, talk about the evolution of the brand promise. So when we first met Infor, at AWS Reinvent, it was like who was Infor? Trying to educate people on who Infor is. And so I felt like last year was your sort of stamp of this is how Infor and why Infor is relevant, and now, there seems to be sort of an undertone of innovation. So can you talk about the evolution of the brand and what you see as the brand promise. >> Well, we are very consistent in our branding and positioning of Infor as really the first industry cloud company. We're the ones who have been, at an accelerated pace, bringing the most deep, industry-rich, functional applications to the cloud. And that has created a great layer now, for all of these future innovations that we have talked about today with the benefits of business intelligence enabled applications built right in, so that you can truly have all the information you need at the right time, for the right purpose to make immediate business decisions. And then the potential and capability of artificial intelligence on top of that. >> As the chief marketing officer, can you talk a little bit about how these innovations change how you do your job, and how they make your life easier, in terms of making the right decision at the right time, making the decision better, having the right data? >> Yeah, well some of the other announcements that we're making this week, actually are in my particular line of business, which is marketing, and one of those, for example, is we're broadening our Infor CRM suite, with a link to LinkedIn's Sales Navigator. So that brings a whole set of important data to, about customers, to enable better customer interactions, for our customers. So that's something that we look to be using in our business, along with Marketo, which is a new business partner, as the engine, or the marketing automation platform to fuel our marketing business. So that's how it's impacting me directly in what I do. >> So I wonder if you could help us sort of debunk some of the myths. So Oracle would say enterprise apps aren't moving to the cloud, and we are the company to move them to the cloud, and we're the only company that can move them to the cloud. You know, SAP, it's got it sort of some cloud going on, but most of the stuff remains on prem. We heard today 55% of your revenue comes from cloud. And we know you made a decision years ago to run on AWS. Help us understand, I mean these are core, hard core enterprise apps that are running in the cloud. So help us debunk some of those myths and add some color to that. >> The traditional processes of rolling out major applications and enterprise applications in an enterprise is completely changing. And it's also changing because of the capabilities of the cloud. And the approach that Infor takes, which is very easy to assemble and configure with our Ion technology and collaboration technology, such as Mingle, to put these applications in place in a much faster way for our customers than some of the traditional players in the ERP market have been accustomed to do. And they just don't have the current technology approach or foundation to be able to move quickly to the cloud, as we do at Infor. >> In talking about Infor, you talked a little bit about the brand evolution, how are you getting the word out? Infor is really a sleeping giant in the technology industry. How are you getting your name out there? >> Well one thing that we want to do with our brand is show, well first of all, introduce Infor to the world at large, that hasn't heard of us. And the way that we want to do that is by showing what kind of benefits we can give to customers in different industries. So we just recently launched our first-ever TV commercials. They have run on shows like Meet the Press, and some of the CNBC and MSNBC shows. That has, incidental, all of that was developed entirely, 100% in house, with Hook and Loop, our creative in-house creative agency. So we're very proud of that. We're looking to do more of that with TV. We also have a relationship with the Brooklyn Nets here in New York, where on the business side, we're enabling them with performance and team analytics with a whole slew of applications of that with biometric readings and imagery, when they're moving around on the court. That can then be used to help fine tune and make decisions on which personnel to use, which, what are the best players to be able to, say, shoot a free throw after one day of rest versus two days of rest. That level of analytics. So we are, in that partnership with the Nets, are also in a branding way, going to be on the Nets jersey starting this September with an Infor patch on the jersey. And we're announcing that also, this week. >> Awesome. This is definitely a New York theme here. We're here at the Javits Center, Brooklyn Nets, Hudson Yards, another huge project that you guys are intimately involved in. Not a lot of vendors are explicitly mentioned in that. Maybe talk about that a little bit. >> Well, Hudson Yards as a development is unique in that it is really a completely self-contained city in all respects. Where the concept is to be able to network the data and information of anybody within that city, with respect to where they live in the high-rises, where they shop in the retail stores or grocery stores, where they eat in the restaurants, and where they work with all of the businesses that are locating there, too. So that gives you so much potential to rethink how information can enable, just the way that you move about, even in the city. From keyless entry into facilities, to voice-activated tasks, like, can you please restock in my groceries in my refrigerator in my condo. So there's so many ways that that can be a broad showcase for the true smart city of the future. >> These are high-end clientele. This is very New York. I want to shift gears and talk about the eco system a little bit. There's a few names that I, maybe they were here before, but I hadn't seen them, at least prominently, certainly IBM, you mentioned Marketo, a great interesting partner, hot company, and some of the SIs are sort of coming out of the woodwork. >> Chip: Yes. >> Now when you think about your strategy for sort of micro verticals, the SIs, I always say, they love to eat at the trough. And if there's not a lot of customizations, they're not interested. However, you've attracted them, because you've now got a substantial enough estate. So talk about that evolution of the eco system. >> We're proud to have as our diamond sponsors this year, AVAAP, as well as Marketo. And AVAAP has been a longstanding partner for, implementation partner for us, in expanding areas. Their heritage is with Lawson in health care and they're doing a lot of implementations across our business in all geographies, in all industries. But what's new this year is we also have attracted some new, some of the big SIs, such as Deloitte and Accenture, Capgemini, Grant Thornton. So they have all come in as sponsors and we're really on the cusp of some big and bigger and better things with them in the different businesses. >> The other thing I wanted to ask you about is Infor has a unique way of attracting interesting speakers. I've done probably five or six thousand interviews in the last five or six years, and some of the most interesting have been at Inforum. Deborah Norville came on in New Orleans, last year Lara Logan, Naomi Tutu, Karina Hollekim, amazing three women interviews. >> Rebecca: This year Susan Rice. >> This year Susan Rice was here, so what's that all about? They're not techies, they're just interesting people. What are you trying to do there? >> Well, we have a program, the Women's Infor Network, WIN, that was created by Pam Murphy, our chief operating officer, and starting a few Inforums ago, we wanted to use Inforum as a platform to showcase innovative women in the world. And it's a little bit of a departure from our product and technology messages. And this year, we've got, as you mentioned, some great inspiring women, like Jill Biden, the former first, vice president-- >> Rebecca: Second lady. >> And also, Susan Rice, as you mentioned. So, it's going to be, it's always a very popular session. >> Yes, and we're looking forward to having those women on theCUBE, too, tomorrow. >> Chip: Absolutely. >> Chip, thanks so much for joining us, it's been a pleasure. >> Thank you for having me. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, for Dave Vellante. We'll have more from Inforum 2017 after this. (techno music)