Video: How to Make a Channel Pizza with the CEO of Network Solutions Provider

hey Channel insiders welcome back for another episode of Channel Insider partner POV your source for untapped opportunities and unfiltered opinions in the it channel to help you make Better Business decisions I'm your host Katie boso and my guest today is Philip Walker customer Advocate CEO of Network Solutions provider in my eyes Phil is like the Tony Stark of the channel when it comes to emerging and nextg Technologies and he's able to explain these complicated solutions to his clients in a really comprehensible way thanks to his pizza recipe analogy Phillip welcome it's so great to see you it's great to see you as well thank you for having me you got it it's been a while since we've spoken so I'm really excited to be able to have the time with you and thank you for coming on let's talk about Network Solutions provider USA uh I think it's a title that is is very on the nose but why don't you tell us what exactly is NSP what kind of solution provider are you and who are the customers that you typically serve so we consider ourselves a NextGen manag service provider uh and everybody comes to us and says well what is that really really Intel we were born out of the data center um focusing on what we believed is IT services with expertise with you know that early bill curve technology so us mastering the new technology so by the time that it's ready for prime time we are already ahead of the curve in terms of service delivery implementation Consulting so we typically service mid-market it companies small businesses education um hospital um and you know and growth and really empowering the SNB business right because we focus on the business outcomes for what they're buying and that's technology so speaking of the business outcomes in previous conversations that we've had you broke down the way you approach your customers because they want to buy what you said is pizza and you're going to them with pepperoni having them understand the full story this is my favorite analogy I've ever heard so can you please kind of break down for me how you help your customers understand the solutions it's figuring out the recipe right so when people come to us we have specialty what we consider pizzas right best of breed ready to go out of the box tested proven we know that they work we can provide them or we can deliver them then you have build your own pizza because a lot of times solution providers or in users are looking at one aspect of their it space which is fine and that sometimes it's just a pepperoni but when you put all these different pieces together they may not work until turn we at of business so when we we see that we see it people businesses over spending on technology not getting full saturation and use about a technology overlaps in technology uh wasted time and sell you know and implementation motion so for us we say that hey we know that you want to build your pizza this way but this is really the ingredients that go together and these are the pieces that work best so we've always said that hey don't buy ingredients you buy pizza so we help the customer focus on the outcome right what is it that you want technology to do and that's why we focus on our three peers which is productivity profitability and protection can you speak to some of the success stories that you've had recently and talk to me about how you're implementing those Trends such as Ai and really driving success for the customer in a way that they didn't have before you know in a way of AI and I could be more excited about a next wave of Technology right I think everybody is anticipating what AI is and the challenge is that everybody started with their first experience of AI which is chat gbt and asking it questions and getting responses and a lot of companies were like hey you know we need this in our company and they spent money and then it didn't work and they were like well how come it's not working I said because you forgot the most important thing about AI the data you have to teach it right it has to learn it has to have learning language model that is robust enough for it to spit out business outcomes so we had a client that um deployed a AI uh software Erp in their company and the B and the information that it was spinning out didn't make any sense like it had no value it didn't really have any U anything tangible that they could get to and they were going to spend more money on AI um happen to be having a conversation with them about a different project heard the issue asked him if I could you know take a stab at it so we brought in a team of data data analytics data scientists um analyz their data realized that 70% of their data was in silos uh most of it was Data at rest it wasn't connected there was no you know there was the data wasn't getting into the AI and let alone the AI wasn't connecting the dots from the information so uh you know a small conversation led into a data you know um if you will cleansing enrichment process that actually made their AI started to spend out real information with about 60 to 90 days uh but that unique approach to the problem gave us way business outcome exceeded the ROI of the software that they were supposed to be getting and again it's immediately gave them impact for the you know uh for their customers because now their marketing team was getting information that they hadn't gotten before the operation team was getting information that they hadn't gotten before um and they were able to Pivot and move or they were having recommendations so I would say that that was a huge success you know um for us you know you know late last year that you know kind of rolled into our labs and we're starting to see more of that and now that we understand how to ask that question you know people are now giving us a look of we're having that problem right it's it's the understanding that now okay we have an ingredient to a pizza that we need to build who else is having this problem who else is looking at this because as AI grows the thing that's going to make AI successful is the data and when it doesn't have data searches the web for the data but it may not be as specific as you need and means to get to you know how does this fit me right how does this work for my particular company based on my operational capacity and the people and pieces that that I have in place on the it buyer side if they're running into an issue is there anything that you can kind of advise them as far as what question to ask their solution provider or their technology provider about how can I solve this problem I would start at the productivity conversation how do you help people do less with more right that's the first that's the first underlying thing is how do I take your existing pieces that you have connect them and get you ready for AI or get you you know pre what we consider precognitive right um before you start having software start to give you recommendation that's the easy conversation um because there's not going to be a business that's going to say no I don't want to you know I don't want my processes to be faster um so productivity is an easy sell point it gives everybody the capacity to say a relatable something that drives that has a tangible business outcome that you can tie to an Ori so if I ask hey you know if we can move your efficiency 15% the question is how are you going to do that which leads to the BP assessment which leads to evaluating their current technology stack which leads to how I can best improve it with technology um having the profitability concept is how do I stretch my current it Investments um to do more to make myself precog pre AI ready that's another question that you can go down um what systems can I get away what systems can I remove in order that AI take over right and you know and and what not necessarily people at this point but um systems R donees pre AI ready is this is the first time I've heard that can you dig into that a little bit more what does that look like what is not being pre AI ready look like the red flag is that you've probably in your company people have downloaded their own software and they kind of do their own things right so that's the first one you know uh Jim may have already downloaded chat GPT and Sally may be using co-pilot right you know just depends on which one they want to use you know Tammy may be using Google work sheet still and you know and someone may still be using Office 365 so in internally it you know it's figuring out Department wise and individual wise why everybody's on their on different pages what are the best tools that they need to be producted and realizing that not all those AIS communicate right they don't communicate they don't talk to each other they don't share information they're not connected they not looking at all the same information they're looking at slivers of information and data so red flag those companies that have fragmented systems they're not cohesive systems that don't talk to each other and that there's no shared collaboration and I always say that high collaboration shows High maturity in a company what are some use cases in which you're using AI we're using AI as a productivity driver for companies so um what we're doing now is doing the assessment for companies uh figuring out their I their maturity level and creating a matrix that will line up with the it with the uh AI model that we'll best recommend and then putting together a 30-day plan to what we consider cognitive ready right so that's where we've kind of parked the destination um so with that product we've been able to sit down with seven companies over the last year evaluate all their systems um and create automization in some places and then when slowly getting them to AI ready by doing that we've taken out the guesswork right of what direction they're going to go what tools they're going to use and what direction you're going to go in the next five years uh the amount of savings that we provided for a lot of these companies has been enormous in the beginning um and it streamlined a lot of the decisions so you know in the Erp system in Erp world that's probably going to be the best driver for that right because it removes the silos of so software systems it removes the divisions inside companies and it allows it to you know kind of have some of complete visibility of a company uh and that is missing in the SNB space you know an SB will probably have nine to 10 different software systems that they had uh everything from a CRM to an HR System to uh project management system to you know but they're all different companies yeah getting them ready for that cognitive Place allows them to transition into a platform that can handle all the divisions all the information and then share it across you know uh Department uh making it a real good tool for the company so philli what is a vertical that you're excited about AI being used in that we may not be considering as we sit here as I sit here right now um you know I'm really excited about Healthcare in Ai and uh I think that the capabilities of healthcare and AI are going to be enormous in that space in terms of patient care uh tracking information delivery uh iot connected devices I think it's going to be massive impact in that space and I think that even the smaller facilities are going to be able to use AI to really you know not just answer the phone right you know but actually get into you know Custom Care um and recommendations are going to be better um but the you know the goal is you know for the you know for the hospitals and everybody in that space is again it's the data enrichment process that they have to go through you know once they go through that process and they get to a point where they can en their data they can you know none of their data is siloed and all their systems are talking that once they actually start to bring in Ai and the working with the experts and doctors I think we're going to see a level of patient care that we haven't seen here uh I know that there's a few companies out there that are already implementing this and uh and doing very very well uh and it's just remarkable on how the you know the growth for AI in this space is going to be when it comes to vendors that are doing it well that are helping you do your job to the best of your ability is there anyone that you can shout out in this moment um any I in AI space I would say Obviously IBM has been you know beyond helpful in terms of what the possibility of AI could possibly be right where they have bent the corner already in terms of business applications and AI ready and is that IBM Watson specifically their AI offering yes yes I think it's um I think they may me changed the names um a couple times at this place at this at this time but I think that that is you know going to be a massive you know impact piece for you know manufacturing you know Supply Chain management and all the bigger operating systems I think that's going to get to a point where it's in the SNB space as well I think Microsoft is you know leaning towards major hyper growth in this space and maybe not necessarily um tangible right now for most of everybody but the things that you're starting to see where they're leaning the direction they're going is absolutely great um but I you know without saying a bunch of names the amount of AI startups that are in the space now that are being disruptive is just amazing uh and this growth of digital transformation is becoming more and more a reality with AI and the capabilities of what it can do and how quickly it can get things done and for the SNB space this is going to be the you know the chance for them to move faster than they have before and actually service to client faster are there any Investments that you're looking to make as far as technology goes that maybe are in AI we've talked a ton about that but is there any are there any Trends or initiatives that you're either interested in or implementing right now so for us um the growth of our cyber security um Team or you know the Defenders uh has exceeded our growth right it it's actually going to be probably you know one of the bigger pieces on this just based on the amount of expertise growth and and capacity that we've packed in and in such a little bit of time uh and the use of AI in cyber security and how it's able to help the thread hunting the thread intelligence and helping us get smarter better tools right so you know those Investments this year are going to be huge for us the AI piece uh we have been scouring United States for talent right uh really not just not just for people but for tools uh and you know to get to the point where we can get nine or 10 solutions that we can feel like we can deliver at a high level is a goal for us this year um I think by the fourth quarter um AI will probably be about 15 to 20% of our Revenue um for another hype for another growth piece um I think that verticals are starting to you know to open to this and I know that our data data analytics team is ready to build out that precognitive uh solution for people so the success and once that spreads is going to be huge in that space uh other than that I think that you know this the idea of virtual AI right um and I keep you know and and you know and not to plug apple as much as they think they can but you know I think the 8 the idea of having a VR AR headset that you can do business on is really going to open people's eyes to the capability of what's next right and I think that that introduction of that product this year is going to catch a lot of people's uh um you know information and then from that standpoint I mean I can't wait for the expansion of 5G right you know uh I think it's at a what does that look like like what does that look like in the immediate future because it still after all this time feels like this fairy tale what does real 5G look like so you know I and I always get excited to talk about anything Network because obviously with the name that is where I started at right 5G is going to be the enabler of nextg Technology you know we always judge everything by our cell phones but the reality is is that arbr is going to be able to be used on a cell phone Edge level The Edge is going to move um and 5G is going to be enabl at pieace for because we're getting closer to a fully connected World um we're getting closer to company's understanding private LTE and the capabilities of it um we're seeing the expansion of wifi or the demand of private LTE to work inside of an LT WI II network uh machine learning is demanding for I for iot and 5G to be you know meshed in together so uh I'm excited about that one because obviously being a network IT company is going to be really great for us uh We've made every bet you could possibly make in this space uh from carrier to vendor uh to be able to Prov we're going to see you all on those VR headsets from in six months aren't we yeah yeah absolutely if yeah you know if if they can just get me through the weit list I'll be extremely happy but you know headset aside what I'm most ex you know excited about is the connected small business right and the idea that we do business everywhere and how do I get secure connections at home because now I'm people working from home and it's not going to go away it's just going to you know continue to grow um PE you know how do I protect myself you know if I'm not in behind my Fortress firewall right so 5G is going to be major step in delivering secure internet connections uh and giving people access to Enterprise systems you know remotely and the reality is we need faster better you know Connections in order to enable the next step of technology technology enablement and immersion of technology and 5 she is almost there so what can vendors do in 2024 to better support businesses like NSP you know the channel is changing and it's changing such at a rapid pace and some of the changes have been unpopular by vendors and some of the changes are really good uh my best adest best you know advice to the vendors that are in the channel is understand that it's not about us it's about our customer you have to put me in the best position um so I can deliver in the best position and the customer experience from buying and you know and engaging with us has to be high so the vendors have to empower us right they have to give us access to the training you know access to Professional Services create new Revenue models for us to tap into um give us more empowerment to you know service the customer because the more that they do that the easier it is for us to grow my last question for you today is for NSP for you specifically if it's something that you're doing on the side are there any charitable or philanthropic organizations or plans that you're helping out this year or looking to invest in this year oh man this year is going to be um a a huge push uh our minority technology allian is growing it started as a peerto peer it actually started off as a phone call right just to buy weekly phone call with a couple guys having conversations about the space um now it's growing into strategic conversations and it's built into um something a lot bigger um so still advocating for Dei um still advocating for diversity and Tech um and adding the level of deing the channel and what that looks like and how much it's so much different than um job roles and descriptions and things of that nature so ly picking up the flag for Dei this year and advocating this year um making sure that it's pushed forward and in a business conversation because it's necessary my our foundation you know that we've started is actually getting ready to launch this year um where we've been focusing on you know what we consider at risk kids families um and then our uh cyber security uh for minority training program uh will probably launch in the second quarter and again focused on getting minorities into cyber security getting them into cyber security leadership roles getting them into training programs and working on job creation in that space is going to be a huge driver for us this year philli thank you so much for your time today if we want to reach out to you to talk about all of our needs within the channel space or we have it buyers that want to get in touch with you and learn more and get help and make a pizza what can they do and how can they reach out to you find me on link right it's not hard to find send me a message and just say hey I Want to Build a Better Pizza # Channel Pizza thanks again to my guest philli for joining me today and thank you for watching or listening to this episode of Channel Insider partner POV we put out a new video and podcast every Thursday you could find that as well as several other articles on channel insider.com you can also follow us on YouTube at Channel inssider newws and Trends And subscribe to our podcast Channel as well we're on Apple podcast Spotify Google podcast YouTube podcast probably other podcast platforms that I'm forgetting to mention right now and if you want to be on the show or you've got a question for me or any of the guests that have been here you can email me at partner poov Channel insider.com thanks so much for joining me today I'm Katie boso and I'll see you next time n

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