Modernization
Architecting the Future of Your Business
October 6, 2022 | Dallas
The Bloomberg Modernization Roadshow explores how companies can create a secure, integrated hybrid cloud environment that extends the value of their technology investments while accelerating their abilities to respond to market shifts and customer demands.
Business and technology executives who have modernized without sacrificing innovation and creativity gathered to discuss the solutions they have adopted to overcome challenges in their information environments and to share their outlook on emerging technologies and the challenges of going green.
Speakers included:
- Greg Adgate, Vice President, Global Partnerships and Alliances, Equinix
- Scott Baker, Chief Marketing Officer, Hybrid Cloud Portfolio, IBM
- Bob Kupbens, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Neiman Marcus Group
- John Manaloor, Associate Vice President, Product Engineering, Thryv
- Ronald Mehring, Chief Information Security Officer, Vice President of Technology & Security, Texas Health Resources
- John Wei, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Comerica Bank
Bloomberg participants:
- Janet Wu, Anchor & Reporter, Bloomberg
Event Highlights:
Panel Discussion: Modernizing the Enterprise by Embracing Cloud
“We don’t know what we don’t know,” is what clients tell Equinix, Greg Adgate, Vice President, Global Partnerships and Alliances told moderator Janet Wu, Bloomberg anchor and reporter. Equinix customers want a neutral broker of cloud-transition options and help in finding and maintaining talent, Adgate added. On his company’s ambitious 2030 carbon-neutral goals, he said Equinix has moved toward sourcing from clean-energy suppliers, buying green bonds, and applying new technologies toward call-center efficiency.
John Manaloor, Associate Vice President, Product Engineering, Thryv described his company as a “130-year-old startup,” with its genesis in traditional yellow pages companies. Now, Thryv is making tools that small companies can use to compete with large competitors. Small business, he said, is entering the golden age of moving from rudimentary technology to the cloud.
Both Adgate and Manaloor agreed that the biggest inhibitor to cloud adoption is resistance to change. And those who buy his company’s solutions, Manaloor said, have to be coached and kept engaged. Adgate said selling organizations on cloud solutions requires showing them what’s possible with connecting to an array of available clouds and networks, laying out a sequenced plan that begins with what’s easiest and most effective, “then figuring out what to do with 1984 mainframes.”
IBM Sponsor Spotlight: Creating Modern Hybrid Cloud Architectures
Scott Baker, Chief Marketing Officer, Hybrid Cloud Portfolio, IBM, offered a thought-provoking look at the ways in which IBM wants to transition clients to cloud solutions, while keeping a “very myopic focus on sustainability.”
Often overlooked by businesses is internal sustainability, he said. “It’s the notion of building the right kind of architecture that allows the business to begin focusing on cultivating its people. But at the same time you want to be challenged. You want opportunities to be created because, as humans, that’s what we want to do. It’s a very powerful thing that you can offer to another person.” Building on human capital, Baker said, “will change the way you think about modernizing your IT environment.”
Case Study: Glamour Goes High Tech
At the Neiman Marcus Group, riding out the pandemic and supply-chain issues meant remaining focused on the customer experience, said Bob Kupbens, Chief Product and Technology Officer. He talked about changing patterns of customer demand as remote working and fewer social engagements prompted them to veer toward a more casual look, while maintaining “a sense of style and luxury.” The return to normal means optimizing the “third channel” of consumer behavior–a hybrid of responsive online and in-store shopping. “People migrate across platforms and geographies, Kupbens told Janet Wu. “We have the options now to get people what they need at the right time.”
With a new ability to tie “customer expectations all the way back through the supply chain,” Kupbens said personalization has moved to a new level. “We’re not replacing sales associates with technology, but enhancing what they do.”
Panel Discussion: Recruiting the Talent You Need to Thrive
For an extensive healthcare system that is all about community purpose, a highly competitive labor market has meant having to source talent from beyond Texas and then acclimating new workers to a new culture, said Ronald Mehring, Chief Information Security Officer, Vice President of Technology & Security, Texas Health Resources. “They have to be a big believer in our mission. Every interaction that happens, a family member or an individual that arrives at one of our care centers, it can be their best moment, or their worst moment.” He spoke of bringing principles he learned during his time in the Marine Corps to healthcare. That means teams must “keep the trains running every day” during his organization’s ongoing digital transformation.
John Wei, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Comerica Bank compared recruiting managers to building a sports car. The smart designer starts with the brakes. “That gives you the freedom to put in a more powerful engine,” he told moderator Janet Wu. Comerica tries to recruit team leaders who can action on that analogy, he said, and who are “humble enough to learn and ambitious enough to take the company forward.”
This Bloomberg briefing was Proudly Sponsored By
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