 From around the globe, it's theCUBE. Covering HPE Discover Virtual Experience, brought to you by HPE. Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of HPE Discover 2020, the virtual event this year. I'm Lisa Martin and I've got a couple of women from HPE joining me next, first time on theCUBE. Very pleased to welcome Jazz Sood, the US VP of Sales, Commercial Unsled at HPE, and Sandy, owner of the VP of Marketing Strategy at HPE. Ladies, great to have you on the program. Thanks for having us. Yeah, excited. So we wanna talk about customers, what's going on. The SMB market is one that has been near and dear to a lot of folks' hearts for the last few months. We're hearing so much, even in our local neighborhood, about small and medium local businesses really being challenged as COVID has just disrupted everything. What are some of the things, Jazz, we'll start with you, that you're seeing in today's SMB market? Yeah, yeah. So I think the SMB market is dynamic, right? And you got a lot of really, really small customers. You have some medium-sized businesses and so forth. So there is a wide range of what customers are feeling today. I think on the one spectrum, just thinking about, how are they going to stay open as a viable business given the current economic condition? Whereas others are trying to figure out, now that we are in more of a remote working environment, how do they support their employees? How do they make sure that there's remote connectivity that we're able to communicate? Obviously, we're all using the same sort of bandwidth. How do we make that work? Also thinking about, there's still a lot of exchange of data going through the remote workplace. And so, how do we make sure that information coming back is secure and so forth? So one of the things that we're trying to do is just make sure that we're there for our customers, let them know that, hey, we just want to hear you. We want to be there for you. And be able to provide many, many options, which I'm sure we'll talk about here in a couple of minutes. But Sandy, what's your take? You know, certainly Jez, echo everything you're saying, right? I think revenue and cash flow is very much on top of everybody's mind. And just 75% of SMB's revenues have been disrupted. And when you think about that, really, how do you not just move to the new normal, but a lot of businesses are gonna have to go through some change? That change really first is how do we contain cost? Look at the core things we need to get done to service customers, have a supply chain, how can infrastructure and IT help with that to contain cost? And then second, how do you find new revenue streams? The world is much more virtual today than it was yesterday. How do we evolve our businesses in order to actually find new revenue streams? I think it's very much on top of people's mind. That's an interesting one, Sandy, that you bring up new revenue streams. Jez, let me ask you, as the leader of sales for commercial and slut in the US, how are you finding new revenue streams? Knowing that, as Sandy said, 75% of SMB's are dramatically affected by COVID. What are you doing? What are you seeing, even working with your channel partners to open up some new revenue opportunities? Yeah, that's right. I mean, channel partners are a key part of our strategy. We, you know, let's go to market strategy for us. So we work with them on a daily basis trying to think about, hey, how could we really help? Right? How can we really be out there to provide certain options for, you know, for customers? So, you know, one of the few things in terms of, you know, helping SMB customers to continue the revenue stream is to provide really lucrative financing options as well. Right? So currently we have many offers that, you know, they don't have to pay till, you know, the end of this calendar year, which is the end of our fiscal year, right? So being able to really think out of the box to say, how could we come together and really be able to help when there is a certain sort of, you know, cash flow shortfall right now. I think the other thing too is there are certain industries within SMB's that actually have higher demand right now, you know, healthcare customers, some financial services customers as well. I mean, those are areas that, you know, as people in the community that we rely on heavily these days. So again, being able to be there for those customers to help them think through ways that we can help them to monetize their businesses a little bit more proactively today is also an area where we're trying to help. And Jess, how has your role as an executive sponsor in a lot of accounts, how is it changing? You know, so very interesting question. So it's more actually often conversation now that we've all been at home. It's not really a, hey, can we talk about this project or, you know, can we talk about, you know, what you have kind of coming up and how can I help it? It's just more around just a general conversation, right? So I've had so many conversations with customers just to say, hey, how are you guys coping? How are you dealing with being able to work remote? Are you able to work remote, first of all, right? I mean, I think we all have that capability but really to have all your employee base being able to do that. What impacts does that have on their business long-term, short-term? And I think that's just opened up just a general, you know, how's it going conversation? You know, we share best practices. You know, as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, we're trying to figure that out as well, right? We are all at home as well. And so it really creates more of a personal conversation. And I think, you know, the main thing that we want to make sure is that we're just there for our customers. You know, we realize that it's a trying time right now and cash flow might be tight and that's okay because, you know, eventually, you know, we're going to come back as, you know, as United States of the economy and things are going to come back. And we just want to make sure that we're there for our customer base, you know, whenever that time comes for them. That personalization is so important. Sandy, I'm a marketer, you're a marketer. And for a long time, we've been talking about personalization and how effective those marketing tactics can be when they can really deliver a message to a prospective buyer that hits exactly that's what I'm looking for. Even more, as Jazz was saying, now it's even more important, not just to your SMB customers to get personal with them but to allow them to have that experience with their customers. Sandy, how have you changed your marketing mix or even your marketing messaging in light of this new need for a different type of personal touch that's only virtual? It's a great question, you know, two things from how you talk to your customer base perspective. And it's true for a Hewlett Packard enterprise, it's actually true for all of our customers out there. Really it has to be authentic, right? To the point where we can't just be selling the thing anymore, everybody is not only cash strapped, time strapped, but they're also looking for a genuine connection of something that they need. So to be much more articulate around the problems we solve, the solutions that are readily deployable, how can we help in these moments has been much more forefront in the marketing messages and just the way we talk with our customers. The other thing is from a marketing mix perspective, we're going to do the same thing everybody else says, right? I was just thinking the other day, probably half of our typical marketing investment is in physical events, just like Discover was, you know, a year ago. And really having to rethink what that is now, how do you still stay connected with customers? What does a virtual event have to be? What is a meetup now in a Zoom? Getting really comfortable with that and these technologies that can help us, but still maintaining those customer touchpoints. And particularly, you know, as we think about, everybody's thinking about new revenue streams, how do you get to the newer customers that don't know you yet? What are the points of personalization, interconnectedness, the ongoing ways you can stay in touch via digital, all become much more forefront as we think about, you know, coin of code than you normal. And along these lines, engagement is so key. You know, you brought Discover being, for how many years before this year, a physical event and theCUBE covers many physical events a year. And so it's very, everyone's trying to figure out, how do we actually engage our customers and our prospects as vendors and maintain their engagement? Because now you're not just, you know, in an audience with a phone and email and phone calls as distractions, you're at home, you're sharing bandwidth, you maybe have kids at home, there's more distractions. So Sandy, what are some of the things that HP is doing at Discover 2020, the virtual experience to engage folks and maintain that engagement? Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, talk about getting ourselves in order of being very, I guess I'll use the word snackable, like anything else, right? We are used to being in a room, talking about, you know, the problems we solve and the solutions we have for an hour. Discover what you're gonna find as 15 minutes, that's all people have in a virtual world, it's 15 minutes. You know, what used to be two, three hours in terms of a keynote is much more targeted and we're doing a lot more on demand. I would say that one of the things that we're really trying to do, particularly with this one and across the board is, you know, how do you stay connected? And it's not just about the one-way delivery of content, but it's really that interaction point, right? Are people talking to our chat agents? You know, what are they chatting about? How do we get them to the next phase? What are all the different ways you can light up in a digital way? That helps people follow up, right? Again, they're gonna come in and out, experience something and this is the world of digital. It's not a one conversation. It's kind of a, it's like a dating game. You gotta keep going, right? Yeah, to keep on the conversation going just through a different medium. That two-way conversation is, I'm glad that you brought that up because jazz at so many events, every event probably is a big opportunity to, for every vendor to close some big deals. There's just something about that face-to-face connection where execs can sit down with customers or whatnot. We can't do that this year. So what are some of the ways that your team and through your channel is doing what Seni was talking about and doing that really that dialogue, that interactive conversation through now just video conferencing? Yeah, yeah. Well, the neat thing about it is that we've still been able to keep some of those personable tracks through Discover, right? So we have like the CIO Summit. So that'll be an area of open dialogue, right? It's sort of an invite-only type of event. We will be having customer round table specific to many different topics. I'm hosting a couple of those myself, right? And so it's an intimate group of 12 to 15 customers doing the same thing on the partner side and having our senior executives being there with us to host it. So I think just the neat thing about it is even though it's virtual and to Sandy's point, we try to keep some of the keynotes and of that nature at a shorter time frame so that we keep attention and make it succinct. I think at the same time, we're able to still keep the small group environment where we're able to have open dialogue. And I think one of the great things about being able to do that now is there's so much that customers can learn from one another. So we talked about us really sharing with them. I mean, customers are a little bit more open to talking to one another as well, and figuring out, hey, what are you doing? Is this working? This is sort of an issue that we have. How are you handling that? So I think just in our environment now, there's a little bit more opportunity and openness to share. And the good thing about being virtual is you can do more of that, because as Sandy mentioned, some of that too, the sessions are on demand. So a little bit on your own time also based on your own schedule. So I think having the variety of both will be key and successful. Yeah, having that mix of those intimate conversations that can help really HPE from a revenue perspective close big deals as well as allowing folks. So Sandy said, give me some, it's like quibbie, right? That snackable digestible content on my time, probably one of the things that we're hearing on theCUBE the last couple of months of everything being virtual is that so many events are getting even more and more and more attendees because people don't have to travel and budgets and that sort of thing. But I got to ask you a question, Sandy, as a marketer, how do you measure engagement? Typically we think of like badge stands at a booth or downloads, but as this pivot was done so quickly, and I applaud HPE for being able to do that. That's a hard thing to do. How are you as a marketer? What are you looking to do to measure success for this event? It's a great question. We look at success in kind of three ways. Obviously it's the reach. How many folks we can bring in? This is the first time we're doing this so global, which is quite fascinating to kind of see it come to life, right? Really being able to address the global audience, the customers, the partners, and our employee base that we're going to be able to reach. Second is relevance. We're thinking about are we talking about the right things that are going to resonate with our customers? How are they reacting to that? There's so many mechanisms that we are going to get feedback from social to the way they engage with us. They're going to vote by their clicks. That's the end of the day. They're going to tell us what they're interested in after we put the content out there and we're going to soak that up as digital signals that come back. And then lastly, obviously, it's just driving pipeline. This is a conversation and hopefully an acceleration point. We in digital marketing have a lot of different ways that we're going to score engagement. We tend to think about it pretty simply. It's either a hot lead, a warm lead, or a cold lead. And it's a way to actually kind of almost think about engagement in a way of the speed of follow-up, right? Is the customer ready to engage in the next step maybe they're super hot, maybe they're just slightly warm. But we have kind of data science models that help us take all that data that we're going to sit on because it's digital, turn it into something that makes sense and then be able to hand over to like Jazz's team some of these signals so our sales teams can act on the next steps. I like that. It's all about speed these days, right? HPE could very quickly to turn this event digital. We also knew that SMBs and customers are having to work quickly to set in place the right digital footprints to move forward. Last thing I want to leave you guys with, Jazz will go to you. What are some of the things that are going on at Discover that you're excited about to engage with customers? Yeah, so I think just one, the virtual experience I think is going to be really cool. We have some cool entertainment type things going on as well, I won't give all that away but I think that keeps it fun. I think it'll be unique experience. I'm really excited also about the different tracks that we have. So we actually do have a small and medium business track, a lot of on-demand sessions. So there's a lot of vertical sessions. There's a lot of industry sessions as well. So really to be able to go in there depending upon what your area of interest is and focus is, I think you're going to find something and it's really easy to navigate. I'm excited because I think there'll be more customers that can come. Having our state and local government customers be able to log on and really get a sense for what's really happening in the industry with all of the CARES Act funding and so forth. So I think it'll be really exciting to be able to showcase tracks like that now that we have a virtual environment that we didn't get an opportunity to do before. So I think there's more that we have to offer and then I'm really interested and excited about that. More without the, as ladies will know and appreciate that the massive foot aches from walking miles and miles in Las Vegas. And last thing, Sandy, you're hosting a panel at Discover. Tell me a little bit about that. Yes, I am. Jazz mentioned that we have a whole SMB track. So we're hosting a panel that's gonna be just, geared for the small, medium businesses. It's gonna be on June 30th as we continue a rolling thunder with Discover virtual. It's with an analyst, couple of our SMB experts really talk a little bit deeper around the solutions that we have, the problems we're hoping to help people solve and certainly those on-demand sessions. I'll just add on to what Jazz is saying. I'm really excited because for the first time, particularly for our small, medium businesses, this is a no entry fee type of event. So there's no entry fee. We're actually giving $10 back to charity. So for our smaller businesses that to be able to kind of consume this content and really see the demos, see the technology, really help shape what's the next step for them, I think is what I'm excited about as well. Excellent. Sandy, Jazz, thank you so much for joining me on the queue today. Great talking to you both. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yes, yeah, appreciate it. It's our pleasure looking forward to seeing the impact. Well, for my guests, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of HPE Discover, the virtual experience. Thanks for watching.