We are live for episode 28 of the Hot Desk Podcast with Melody Brue and Robert Kramer.
Watch the full episode here:
1:58 Made in the USA: Intel’s CHIPS Funding
4:21 IBM Acquires StreamSets and webMethods
7:44 Snapdragon’s Manchester United Partnership
12:41 RingCentral Aids Medical Equipment Provider
17:55 Verint Announces Multi-Million Dollar CX Bot Deal
22:06 What’s coming up?
Made in the USA: Intel’s CHIPS Funding
IBM Acquires StreamSets and webMethods
Snapdragon’s Manchester United Partnership
Watch MI&S Analysts Discuss Snapdragon’s Manchester United Sponsorship On The Game Time Tech Podcast
Other recent Game Time Tech Podcasts
IBM at Wimbledon
IBM at the Masters
HYCU and the Importance of Data Protection in Sports
RingCentral Aids Medical Equipment Provider
https://www.ringcentral.com/whyringcentral/casestudies/med-care.html%C3%82%C2%A0
Verint Announces Multi-Million Dollar CX Bot Deal
What’s coming up?
Robert at the 2024 AWS Analyst Forum & Summit in New York
Mel at Wimbledon
Disclaimer: This show is for information and entertainment purposes only. While we will discuss publicly traded companies on this show. The contents of this show should not be taken as investment advice.
Transcript:
Melody Brue: Welcome to this week’s edition of Moor Insights & Strategy Hot Desk Podcast. This is episode, are we on 28? I think we’re on 28. I’m Melody Brue and I am joined here by Robert Kramer, who is our VP and Principal Analyst of ERP and enterprise data, among some other things. Today we are going to be talking about a number of things, but in general, on this show, we talk about all of the tools, trends, and trajectories in people and marketing technologies, enterprise apps, ERP, CRM, and then the glue that holds it all together, which is data. This week we are talking about one of my favorites, just because it’s so fitting on as we go into the 4th of July holiday, is this made in America Intel CHIPS Act money and their plans for that. IBM-
Robert Kramer: Well, happy 4th of July first.
Melody Brue: Yes, happy 4th of July.
Robert Kramer: To everybody. Sorry to interrupt, but it’s such a fitting week for the fun and fireworks, but continue. Sorry about that.
Melody Brue: It is fun. And interesting and weird fun fact about me, three of my children were born on or within a day of a patriotic holiday, so we are big-
Robert Kramer: That’s cool.
Melody Brue: We celebrate big. We’ve got a big flag in front of our house. I have a 4th of July baby, a Labor Day baby, Memorial Day baby.
Robert Kramer: Wow.
Melody Brue: And then the other one’s Halloween, so he’s the dark one, but don’t tell him I said that. I have holiday babies. Anyway, that’s a digression. But we’re also talking about Snapdragon’s Manchester United partnership and then we’re going to talk a little CX, both RingCentral and Merit, and what’s on deck for next week. So let’s get going with that.
First of all, I did want to start with this just because I do like the association with the 4th of July holiday. But Intel announced they are receiving $8.5 billion in federal funding from the CHIPS Act. This is in addition to the 100 million that they’re already investing of their own money, which they say is to expansion, making capacity and capabilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Ohio.
But the thing I think is really interesting about this and really cool, I think just for the labor sector I guess, which is that many of these jobs that they will be hiring for don’t require a college degree. Many of these things are things that are quality control or measurement, fabrication. These are associate’s degrees that people can get in community college. So I think Intel is really investing in upskilling the workforce. There’s also a number of construction jobs that will come out of this. So I really like this from that perspective, the made in the USA, but also just providing a lot of jobs here and job opportunities to people that don’t necessarily typically have them. And we both-
Robert Kramer: I like that too.
Melody Brue: … and a little bit of ESG from time to time when it comes to the data side of it. But I think just from a human perspective, this is really cool because so many companies talk about how they’re bringing people into technology with STEM, with a number of other initiatives, kind of leveling the digital divide, bridging the digital divide. I’m a little sick so my brain’s not… So this is just one of those things that’s like in action and I really like it. What are your thoughts?
Robert Kramer: I think so too. When companies are able to branch out like you’re talking about with the workforce, I think it offers a lot more capabilities for those customers to kind of grow versus just sticking with the resources they’re used to. So it’s great. And Intel is obviously one of those companies that’s a leading USA made company. So I think that’s really fits the target that you’re talking about.
Melody Brue: Yep, I like it. All right, onto IBM’s acquisition. This is something you’ve been pretty involved in from the beginning because it was also with another one of your clients, so why don’t you take this one off?
Robert Kramer: Yeah, this is really an interesting play for IBM, which is fitting exactly for what they’re trying to do. IBM’s buying an integration solution from Software AG, and it’s their StreamSets and their webMethods, which is the combination of the two of them make up what they call the Super iPaaS, which is more of a real time iPaaS solution. It’s something that takes real time integration and API management and data ingestion, puts it into somewhat of a platform to utilize. So it’s really fitting for IBM because of the fact that companies are looking to really modernize with their ERP solutions and they’re embedding AI, as you’re seeing everywhere. Everywhere we go, it’s AI, AI. But AI only works well with good data quality. And this really takes the efforts away from not being able to have a unified environment.
So what I’m seeing is they’re going to be able to take this and help Watsonx data. So they’re going to be able to bring this integration tool there. And I think that’s a big deal because the Watsonx data was really made from the ground up for architecture to handle unstructured and structured data in their Lakehouse, which allows them to now have a strong integration tool to actually utilize that. You have these companies that they have their ERP data and then they have these SaaS applications. This will be able to marry a lot of that, which I see companies wanting to reduce their technology stacks and this is really fitting for that. So long-winded answer, it’s a really cool acquisition for IBM. I know it’s one of those that they’ve been working on for a while and here it is. So what do you think?
Melody Brue: This just closed, right?
Robert Kramer: Yep.
Melody Brue: And you were kind of in on the beginning of it when you were visiting with Software AG, who they bought it from.
Robert Kramer: Correct.
Melody Brue: Am I correct on that?
Robert Kramer: Yeah, I actually wrote the introductory paper to the Super iPaaS when they released it about a year ago. And then I did a webinar about ERP integration with them recently and also went over to Dublin for one of their customer events and I interviewed the CEO of StreamSets. So I’ve been around software AG to really see it from the beginning and it’s exciting because when you get to see these companies at this detail, it allows you to understand what their vision is and their mission and what they’re trying to do.
Now, the concern I have with Software AG is they’re letting go of one of their strongest features that they have. So they have some other products that are pretty strong but not at this level. So I’m looking forward to seeing how we can help them take those to a different level, because I think that some of those products they have are good to help with the data quality components and looking at that and also optimizing the data stacks. But yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Melody Brue: Cool. That’s fun. I think it’s really interesting when you get to see something kind of from start to end, you get to see the whole evolution of it. So that’s cool that you been a part of that from the beginning.
Robert Kramer: Thank you.
Melody Brue: Which actually good segue into our next thing, which is Snapdragon and Manchester United. You got to go to England to visit Manchester United with Qualcomm to learn about Snapdragon’s sponsorship there. I wasn’t able to attend, I’m very jealous but-
Robert Kramer: I went in your place.
Melody Brue: I didn’t think we both actually took Anshel’s place, which is great because we had-
Robert Kramer: You in Anshel’s place.
Melody Brue: …yesterday to discuss. But yeah, we talked about this a little yesterday on Game Time Tech, but not everybody is watching every single podcast, even though they should.
Robert Kramer: They should. It’s unbelievable if they’re not.
Melody Brue: Just because you have all the history here, give your view of the evolution of this.
Robert Kramer: So about a year ago, I think, well, maybe I think last November I went over there. So I was working with the marketing team and a couple other folks. What Snapdragon is looking to be the sponsor for Manchester United’s, they call it the front of the shirt partner. And it just got released, I think it was July one. But in the makings that started last November is they were looking to take on this partnership and we’ll talk about that just in a second, what that means.
But it’s the branding of a sports team with the logo of IT technology. So it’s the front of the shirt, it’ll go in men’s, women’s and the academy teams, and home and away, and I think they have special jerseys as well. But this collaboration is really something that we and you have talked about, what is sports technology today as it’s evolving? It’s more than just a sponsorship.
And we have our podcast, which is called Game Time Tech that has elaborated on this subject matter, but it’s going to allow the technology company to brand and showcase what they have on the front of the jersey. It’s going to give the sporting team the technology that the IT company has, but it’s going to ultimately improve the fan experience.
And I think that’s something unique because before, 20 years ago, it was all about the sponsorship only. Now it’s so dynamic and there’s so much money in this, it’s a matter of what is the number that actually is apropos for the ROI. So I think this is fantastic. I got to see it all the way up until recently that everything kind of progressed and the two of us are hopefully going to be in San Diego at Snapdragon Stadium when Manchester United debuts there at the end of July.
Melody Brue: That’s the end of July. Yeah, we’ll do a special edition there where we can really have hands on. Yeah, I think it’s interesting obviously from a branding perspective. Because it’s a B2B brand, it really helps Qualcomm get the Snapdragon logo, name, they even have a Sonic out there, that’s identifiable almost like the Intel Inside was many, many years ago, where consumers have a choice of are you going to buy this phone or this phone? And Anshel talked about this yesterday, like Samsung released several different phones. Well, the one with the Snapdragon chip sold better. If they can build an affinity with consumers, it really helps them even just with their OEM partners to go to them and say, “Look, consumers demand this superior product of a Snapdragon chip.” So that helps them. It also helps, it helps them to sell those products, those OEM products because they’re saying, “We’re doing basically all of this advertising for you.” It’s not necessarily for their product, but if people prefer a product with a Snapdragon chip, that’s helpful for the end sale anyway.
Robert Kramer: Well, like you said, it’s a business to people marketing, which is very unique but absolutely correct way to do it and it will brand the Snapdragon a little bit further than it is now because of the fact that as we were talking to Qualcomm, not everybody knows who Snapdragon is. This brings a lot of new customers and branding to those that are not aware of what it does. So I think it’s a smart move. We’re going to see these moves happen along the way with sports technology. It’s another vehicle for the branding and technology to be used, as it’s a huge component.
Melody Brue: For sure. I think Snapdragon as a brand is so well known in other regions. In China, it’s super well known. But I think the AIPCs-
Robert Kramer: India.
Melody Brue: … that just launched with the Snapdragon X chip in it, I think that’s going to really elevate the brand here in the US as well. So we’ll keep track of that. We’ll keep on that.
Robert Kramer: So RingCentral, it’s all you.
Melody Brue: On to RingCentral. Yeah, so RingCentral has just integrated with a company called MedCare, which is a medical service provider. And they’ve implemented RingCentral solutions. And MedCare, so we’ve talked about this recently, is healthcare tech is sort of having a moment. And RingCentral really seems to be leaning into this. And you can see how something like with a really good cloud phone solution plus all of the AI built in, they were able to get, with their RingSense AI and RingCentral contact center, they’ve said that they were able to report… They’ve reported a 40% reduction in call wait time. I don’t always look at that as the key KPI. I think definitely call wait time, people get frustrated, time to resolution, things like that. But when you’re talking about medical needs, call wait time is significant. When you have something where you need a device or a wheelchair or whatever, this is stuff that you can’t get wrong. These are critical solutions.
So they reported a 40% reduction in wait call and substantial savings in call reviews and agent coaching, that’s because of their AI. They’ve really made a big push into these more tailored solutions for healthcare and I think that’s really smart. And we talk a lot about how AI was a really obvious use case for customer service. And we’ll talk a little bit about that in a second with Verint as well. But when you add in the really critical things like healthcare, government contracts where people are on hold for a reason, they’re not just calling to complain about something. Obviously there’s a reason people are calling, but these are kind of more critical things. When you’re dealing with government agencies, healthcare, banking, they’re really kind of more sensitive things. I like that they’re really leaning into this and solving those problems to get those issues resolved much quicker. I don’t know if you have anything to add to that, but I think you’ll have something to add.
Robert Kramer: I think healthcare’s a gigantic subject obviously. It’s one of those things where we didn’t have AI at the forefront that we do now to analyze data. I think it’s also been, this is not the best thing to say, but a bull-y type of industry where the ones that had the most money were at the top of the funnel from a medication and service from a healthcare. I think now that they can look at, with the unstructured, structured data, these lake houses and these intelligent platforms and aggregate the data and find some of these companies that are doing these trials and to find ways to service the industry a little bit better. But it’s a very complicated subject. I think Oracle’s doing a great job. But as they’re looking at it, there’s a lot of companies, Cloudera is doing something fantastic where they’re able, they’re specialized in the healthcare business and more the complex situations where the data is hard to find and aggregate where it’s useful. But it’s great that we’re seeing this moving forward because I think if you go back 10 years ago, it was more of those companies that had the money that reached to the top keep on it selling.
Melody Brue: Yeah.
Robert Kramer: I don’t know.
Melody Brue: And there’s so much going on in this space, not just in customer service but just in healthcare in general. Just last week, I think last week or the week before Salesforce announced their Life Sciences Cloud. I think you’re right, that there’s sort of like, I hate to use this word, but democratization of healthcare at this point. Of healthcare services, I wouldn’t say of healthcare. Where even just medical trials, that was one of the use cases that Salesforce talked about in the launch of Life Science Cloud, is that the AI will help them to quicken the drug trials and any medical trials because it keeps track of the follow through, the results, all the things which those are places where often trials drop along the way is that participation drops. So the AI can actually help to wrangle everybody in and figure out where the things are dropping off. So yeah, so much interesting stuff happening in healthcare. I think we will continue to follow that. And I think you mentioned Oracle, you heard from Larry Ellison at Oracle about their commitment to healthcare. We will both be at Oracle Cloud World in September.
Robert Kramer: Yep.
Melody Brue: So I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about that. I was just in Tennessee where they’re moving their headquarters, so we were talking about that when we were there. But anyway, let’s move on to Verint, another CX experience and another major, I would say sort of critical infrastructure type of thing. So Verint is a CX automation company, if you’re not familiar. And they just announced a 6.5 million dollar contract with a US public utility company. They didn’t name which one it is.
So obviously this is a pretty major AI deal for them, one. It involves multiple of their AI powered bots, so they’re going to deploy several different bots on Verint’s open platform. So they’ll have data insights, transcription, interaction wrap up, and then quality bots. So this really kind of helps. I think what the goal was for this utility company was obviously everybody’s interested in cost reduction, but better customer insights, increased retention, and then upsell opportunities through this CX automation.
But I think in general, so this is a great deal for Verint, obviously. They have some really interesting bots. I talked about one of them a while ago, which is their TimeFlex bot, which is how customer service agents can kind of trade for time slots, which relieves a manager of having to approve every single thing. But these bots, and now since then, I’ve seen it from other companies as well. But even HCM companies offering this kind of flexible kind of scheduling through AI and bots. Excuse me, I’m a little sick.
But I think this kind of speaks to a couple of different things. One, major industry trend in terms of AI powered bots that are going to help improve the customer experience and drive results. But I think this also really showcases kind this scalability and flexibility of these Verint bots. Like I said, they can do kind of this time schedule, but all the CX automation solutions to meet specific needs. And it’s just really kind of, I guess in general, not just for Verint but just for industry-wide, it’s just kind of an example of how AI is transforming customer service and delivering value for customers across various sectors.
This happens to be another one that’s sort of critical, like healthcare, a public utility company. If you lose your power, getting that service and getting into the why and to the how and the when is it going to be fixed, and even being able to have that outbound communication, all of these very important things, these are critical things. When you’re without power, you can have any downtime, you can have extra wait time, you can have agents who aren’t up to speed on what’s happening in the situation. So these are really critical things and I think important that AI is actually helping to solve these problems and seeing these use cases.
Robert Kramer: It’s interesting and if you go to a manufacturing perspective, industry 4.0 was smart factory and automation. But when you get to 5.0, which we’re going to see people talk about a little bit more, it merges robotics and humans. And that’s kind of what you’re talking about. It’s helping solve problems, but not every problem with a robot. But it’s allowing the humans to get more efficient. Right? And I think that we’re going to be seeing that if you translate that to all the different types of industries, that what you’re talking about is really a great step to this direction that I’m talking about.
Melody Brue: Yeah. Human in the loop is I think the ideal situation, right? There’s some things obviously that the bot can do for us, which frees us up more time to do the things that are more human.
Robert Kramer: Right.
Melody Brue: Well, we got through those things real quick. That was a long list, but we do have a couple of exciting things coming up. I am headed, in a couple of days, to Wimbledon. We talked a little bit about-
Robert Kramer: Fabulous.
Melody Brue: … our Game Time Tech. In the show notes, we have a couple of them linked, the most recent one being what we did with IBM at Wimbledon and using their AI to really enhance the game for fans. So I will be there on site at Wimbledon and I’m super excited about that. We’ll definitely have to talk more about that when I’m back. You are headed?
Robert Kramer: I’m headed to New York, but I’m definitely going to be jealous of Wimbledon. I was there a long time ago and actually one of my buddies who was my roommate in London is visiting for the holidays and we were talking about the hats. I’m going to have to send you a hat because we sat behind these women on center court. They had these gigantic hats. We had this picture of us going like, “Oh my God, we can’t see.” We saw the last time that Jimmy Connors played at Wimbledon, so it was really very cool.
But I’m actually going to be in New York for an AWS Analyst Forum and it’s also a customer event the next day. So I’m assuming that it’s going to be a lot of generative AI, but they’re also doing a lot of different things in the cloud. We’re going to be very interested to see how they’re handling some of these data points that we talked about and highlighted during this show. But also some of their new partnerships with NVIDIA and SAP and how we expect to see some really nice things from those partnerships, plus more that they’re doing. And then hopefully at the end of the month, we’ll be in San Diego. So great month ahead and although we got the 4th of July, so hopefully everybody’s going to be barbecuing and very exciting.
Melody Brue: I’m going to say that sounds like a good time, but I think I win on getting to go to Wimbledon.
Robert Kramer: Oh, for sure.
Melody Brue: I will not be wearing a hat this time. I’ll check it out and we’ll see. But I am ready with my Wimbledon whites, not my… My husband made a joke this morning that I looked like I should be churning butter in this dress, so I’ll be wearing something more Wimbledon appropriate.
Robert Kramer: You’ll be great. I can’t wait to see the pictures. But Melody Brue and Robert Kramer from Moor Insights & Strategy. Thank you for joining The Hot Desk in episode 28. Have a wonderful 4th of July. Enjoy the fireworks and everything centered around your families. We’ll see you next time.
Melody Brue: Bye.
