>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering ServiceNow Knowledge 2018. Brought to you by ServiceNow. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge '18, #Know18. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, Dave Vellante. We're joined by Walid Saleh. He is the Senior Director, Enterprise Service Management and Automation at CIBC, based in Toronto. Thanks so much for coming on the show, Walid. >> It's great to be here. >> So I wanted to talk about the digital transformation, the enterprise service transformation journey that you are on at CIBC. Can you give our viewers a little bit of a sense of that? >> Yeah, I would say, we're actually focused on three different pillars. Obviously we're a financial institution, so security, and visibility, and compliance, that's paramount. You want to make sure that your financial institution is taking care, and has stable stakes. But we also are focused on user experience. It's very important for us. And we're focused, also, on delivery and agility of the delivery. Enabling our businesses to have their products out for our customers as fast as possible. And in the same time, making sure that our internal employees do have a great experience that can actually mirror the experience they give our customers as well. So those are the three, I would say, pillars that we're focused on. And this is where ServiceNow helps us with the transformation, for sure. >> Can you follow up on that? Elaborate a little bit. >> Yeah, I would say, you know I've been in technology for over 20 years, and I think it's really exciting times, you know? They always talk about the Jevons Paradox, which says, with computers, you get this efficiency, but that efficiency is really eaten up by the rate of consumption. So eventually, you're not getting really, the benefits that everybody talks about, but that we have been predicting for years and years. I actually believe that this is the time where we're going to see some of this efficiency. In the keynotes this morning, they were talking about the automation, were talking about the customer experience, and I think in it was the automation, the artificial intelligent. I think John, was here talking about the artificial intelligence and how it solves problems. I think this is where we're going to start seeing some of those efficiencies really manifest itself. And finally, maybe that paradox will be resolved, right? So that's really, I would say, a very important part of what you do in automation. Making sure we take all of those repetitive tasks that maybe are low value, not only that, but connecting the different areas, these are the ones we need to take out of the system, and focus on the higher function values, I would say. >> So the keynote resonated with you today. You're not running away from automation, you're embracing it. >> Absolutely. And would you say your organization is, as well? >> Yes, for sure. I've been around through multiple transformations, that's how the technology is. And I would say, throughout many of those transformations, we actually see that, our staff, it's about how do you prepare them with the skills that are required for that next wave. And in many cases, we see people, they're moving around to different jobs, doing different things that actually adds more value. Where those pieces that maybe they were complaining about because, it's just repetitive, maybe it's late at night, I don't want to be up, you know? I don't want to be doing the same things over and over. Those are the pieces that really can leave automation. Machine and machine learning actually do, execute and have your staff. So in my mind, absolutely not shying away from it. We're continuously looking at how do we have our staff ready? What's the next skill required for our transformation? And how do we actually have the teams do those higher functions? >> I was just thinking when you were describing how the kind of, grunt work, that employees are happy about, we tend to hear about this great anxiety about automation, and that people are worried that the robots are coming for their jobs, but what you're describing is the opposite, and that employees are actually grateful and really excited to have that stuff done for them. >> I would say as part of that transformation, I think there is no such thing as over-communicating. I think you have to communicate once, and twice, and thrice, and keep communicating, right? Especially in a large, classical organization, where there's a long chain of command. Actually, you have to do a lot of communication. Explain to people what the end view is. And I think what's really important is to focus on the purpose. That's really, really important. It's not the task, it's what the purpose is behind it, right? And how do we actually, maybe, take some of that task that again, are low value, and have a better experience for our employee, and subsequently for our customers as well. >> Could you talk a little bit more about the ServiceNow journey? How did it start? Where is it going? Maybe give us some detail on the timeline. >> I would say it's an interesting subject because I think when we started, it was all about, again, itel, the problem management, incident management, the usual, managing IT, IT managing. Making sure that everything is up and running and recovery is solid. I think we absolutely are seeing now that the platform, and it is really a platform, I think there will be never an argument, now, saying "Well, it is a platform." It has grown from just that area, which is just focused on being really internalized and looking internally into IT to how do we look outward to our clients, and how do we look outward to the business. And I think the business absolutely sees the value as well, and sees how we can help them automate some, again, of those workflows that enables them to be agile and faster, for sure. >> When did you first install ServiceNow? >> We actually started in 2012. >> Wow, okay. >> So one of the really early in the Canadian space, I would say. >> And what was your first move, beyond IT? >> Yes, I would say roughly, maybe two years later, 2013, 2014, that's when, once we put a catalog of services together, with a portal for people to request what they need, that's when we actually started really realizing that you know what, this is not just technology for technology. There's now all these business people. And we've done the job as technologists trying to do this, and then we realized, you know what, user experience is really, really, really important, right? And it really mirrors what John was saying in the keynotes. Again, that experience, how do you focus on experience, and make it easy for our consumers, which internally, to help our customers. >> So that was, what, '14 time frame? >> Roughly '14. >> Start bringing it to the business, as what, customer service management, or HR, or? >> As a place, a central place, a single portal for them to actually request services from IT. And it has grown to maybe beyond that as well. So over the years, you find other areas to say, "You've got a really good thing going down in here, "and everybody knows it, can you add this? "Can you add that?" >> And have you avoided custom modifications, pretty much or? >> I would say, because we were really early on the platform, I'd be lying if we say we avoid it. But I think after a couple of years, we really, I would say around 2014, this is when we actually realized the rate of innovation and how we need to make sure that the customization aren't a minimum. And it's something that, again, we had to communicate and drive in the organization. Obviously everyone feels that their business is special. But a lot of communication about what is the impact of customization, and how do you, if you customize, you will build it, we call it Tech-Debt, that you'll carry over, year over year. And that's when the business actually really listens around efficiency and the cost of that Tech-Debt. >> And what version are you at now? >> We are on Jakarta. >> You're on Jakarta, okay. So you're pretty current. >> Absolutely. And the custom mods make it a little bit harder for you to keep up, but it sounds like you're working through that. >> Absolutely. Every year, when we upgrade, we actually remove pieces of the customizations. Try to be, as much as possible, out of the box. >> Dave: And single CMDB? >> Absolutely, it's the single CMDB on all our environments, for sure. >> And have you written apps, are you taking advantage of the platform? >> We have, we have. And we found, we started, again, being technology, we started with some of the apps that actually helps technology. Things like our runbook being moved internally into ServiceNow. Moving our disaster recovery tools into ServiceNow. And again, John was talking about this this morning about how Fred said it's one data model. And it is, really. It's the heart and core of ServiceNow. Anything we move in really makes use of that data model. Is the data better together, if you like, right? I mean, it's really, I would say it's interesting because as we move things inside ServiceNow, you start seeing more and more potential. Why can't we do this? Why can't we automate this? Why can't we, just by the virtue of having the data reside together. So we've done a good number of that. What this led to is we also figured out well, we can do some of this to the business as well. So we actually start using ServiceNow for some of our business applications as well, for our back-office. >> Last word on the show, you had 18,000 peers here. How's the show going for you? What are you learning? What are your takeaways? >> It's excellent, I think it's great. I'm really happy to see that we're focused on the end user experience. Again, I keep saying the customer experience will never exceed the employee experience. So it's really important that we get this great experience for our own internal staff. And I'm really happy to see that this is the focus for John, so it's great. >> Rebecca: Great, well Walid, thank you so much for coming on the show. >> Thank you for having me. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Vallante, we will have more from Las Vegas at ServiceNow Knowledge '18 just after this.