 From around the globe, it's theCUBE with digital coverage of IBM Think 2021, brought to you by IBM. Hello, and welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of IBM Think Virtual 2021. I'm John Furrier, your host of theCUBE. We're here at Kirsten Kraft, who's the global head of business development and marketing at Prolifix. Kirsten, great to see you. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Thanks so much, John. It's great to be here. I love the fact that we're getting the content out there. We're still remote, soon in real life's coming back, but what a time it's been in the past year and a half or so. A lot of change, a lot of action. You guys are in the middle of it here at IBM Think. Let's get into it. But first, take a minute to explain what you guys do at Prolifix and your business model. Sure. So thanks, John. So Prolifix, we've been in business actually for over 40 years, which is pretty amazing when you think about technology and everything that's happened in 40 years. We are a global service provider. We've got over 1,000 people worldwide. And we are 100% focused on software and almost 100% focused on IBM, right? Of course, nobody's focused on a single technology stack these days. So we work with our customers across many different products, but we've been with IBM for a very long time. When we look at our business model, when we talk with our clients, we find that organizations today, they've got really complex challenges, especially now, right? In what all is happening right now. They've got a lot of really interesting opportunities as well as problems that they have to solve in front of them. And those types of situations, they can't just be addressed by just buying a product. And Prolifix approach is we work with our clients to get really above the technology conversation and to really understand what are they trying to accomplish, right? At the end of the day, why is this an important initiative for you? And we help them develop roadmaps and then we help them get there. So of course, we're selling technology along the way and in that implementation path. So I would say from a business model perspective, we're very services focused. We're very consultative. And of course our resulting technologies are running on IBM. You know, about eight years ago, Dave Vellante and I started a little small little section which is looking at an angle called services angle. And our premise was is that services were going to be a big driver. Now what we missed was cloud had to set up first and it did. And now we're seeing a boom in services, but cloud services, you're seeing new kinds of services with the edge and other things. So what's your take on this? Because now IBM has this global view. The pandemic has proven that the scale of virtual and digital is so much more compelling. No one's going back. The economics are too good. The values being realized as clear visibility into unit economics of projects. Projects are obvious to double down on some, not to maybe. So a lot of these things are going on. What's your take on all this? So it is interesting because that is both an opportunity as well as a challenge, right? For clients at Proliphix, we've been, we were actually pretty blessed because we're very virtual. We're a virtual company anyway, right? So we didn't have one facility where all of our developers are housed. So it was really kind of business as usual for us in terms of how we work with our customers with the exception of the fact we couldn't go into their offices, right? Anymore, which is a bit of a challenge. But as they look at, how do they really harness the cloud? How do they harness those technologies? You know, IBM as well as business partners like Proliphix, we're in a great position to help them with that because a lot of where IBM is going with cloud packs and containerization, that's where our customers want to be. Now, some of them are a little bit more aggressive than others in terms of how quickly they want to adopt that technology, which is where road mapping comes into place and helping them really set up, not just for short term, how do they solve what's in front of their face? But let's look a year or two years down the line. How do you make sure that you're really building an agile type of environment that's going to work across data, which is really the center of all things nowadays as well as working across other systems? You know, I've been covering IBM for a very, very long time. Actually, once I was an employee as a co-op student back in college, remember those glory days? And you mentioned you guys been with IBM for a very, very long time. You got up, they've always had a business focus. They've always had great technology, got great technologists and experts there. But I think now more than ever, you're seeing the theme at the show this year as hybrid cloud edge data AI as a kind of an underlying system software for business. So you're starting to see a new era of software driving business at a level that's been completely transformed. As an IBM platform, software provider, you've been there for all the IBM over the years. What's it like? What's your take on this? What opportunities do you see with the hybrid cloud? You got Red Hat now under the covers. You mentioned containers. Is it a pinch me moment where people are like, wow, there's so much here to integrate or cloud is going to provide a new clean sheet of paper to do things. What's the vibe? What's the sentiment? You know, it's interesting. We're actually seeing more customers starting to look at themselves as technology companies. So even companies that don't think that historically they're not in a technology industry, they're now identifying internally. They're talking to their staff about, we don't sell widgets. We're a technology company that happens to sell widgets. So it's really an interesting dynamic. And I would also mention that one of the themes we're seeing across a lot of customers, almost all of our customers, is this insane focus on data. I say insane in like a good way, right? So how do we use our data to help inform our processes? How do we make sure that we're sharing data effectively and efficiently with all of our trading partners? We're seeing a lot of modernization when it comes to integration. But again, integration is all about exchanging data. We're seeing customers start to dabble more with AI in terms of how can we get smarter by using the data that we have available to us? Again, I think that's going to be the next wave because we're seeing a lot of our customers start to dabble in that, but not fully embrace it just yet. But they really want to get that underlying platform around data and integration ready to go so that they can do some amazing things in the future. How is the hybrid cloud and data impacting prolific business? What does this take you guys for the next chapter? Well, it's actually perfect for us because that's almost 100% of what we do. So we, as I mentioned earlier, we are 100% focused on software, right? Software and software-based solutions. We're not a hardware provider. We don't have a data center, but we help customers design and implement software-based systems. And our expertise is squarely in data, business intelligence, analytics, AI, and also integration and business process automation. Those are really our core, especially as it comes to IBM technology. Now we also have a testing practice, which is technology agnostic, but it's really critical as you, especially as you look at rapid development cycles, because that's another theme we're seeing with customers, right? Nobody's got the patience to go through a long waterfall model, right? You've got to get into production as the Apple model, right? Get it into production, get feedback, make modifications, and go. But if it gets out there and it's completely broken, guess what, you just stepped all over yourself. So we integrate testing into everything that we do as well. But the data and the hybrid cloud message and all of the innovation that IBM is doing, fits perfectly in with what we're seeing with our customers and where we've invested for so long as far as skills and expertise. You know, that testing example really kind of speaks to the state of the art right now, because people can get into production with the cloud and then they realize that they're adding services pretty quickly and things break. They call it day two operations is the term that they've been kicking around. I call it essentially DevSecOps, but there's a lot of kind of new things that you just got to kind of watch that were traditionally IT-like functions that are now cloud ops, cloud operations. So super new. How are you guys seeing that with the customer base that you guys have as they start to see benefits? Does it impact their staffing, their support levels? What's the impact to the customer when they start to realize some of these benefits? But then understanding that with scale comes a whole nother set of operating challenges. Yeah, you know, it is interesting with that scale it does present other challenges as you mentioned from an operations perspective. And we have seen customers that go out there, go live. Well, you remember the commercial? I think there was a commercial many, many years ago back when the internet was kind of a new thing where it was a startup company and they put an e-commerce site out there, right? And they were like, oh, yay, we got our first order. They're like, yay, we have 10. Oh, crap, we have 10,000, right? So, you know, you see customers like this they get excited to put something out there but they haven't fully performance tested it, right? So that's also where we try to help our customers take that step back and say, okay, how are you going to actually plan not just for day one to get it out there but longer term? And that's where we also put our performance testing as a part of all of our solutions because, yes, it's a good problem to have but you really don't want to have that problem in the first place. So how do you make sure that you plan and prepare for that and incrementally deploy and make sure that your underlying technology is prepared to support that kind of volume? Awesome, Kirsten. I want to ask you kind of the important question this day and age in the modern era with cloud and now this new cloud scale. And it's always kind of been true in the past but now more than ever you're starting to see the role of the ecosystem of partners as a super important because now integrations are happening, you're bringing point solutions into a platform where tools are integrating with other tools. So as a partner of IBM, how is the ecosystem role that you guys are playing and how important is that? And what are the new things that are needed to be successful in the ecosystem with the premise that rising tide floats all boats which is kind of what we're seeing that happen now certainly coming out of the pandemic it's going to be a whole new game but there are ecosystems that are now evolving around IBM, around these big mega trends like cloud edge and data. What's your take? So first of all, you mentioned IBM's focus on ecosystem, right? And so Arvin has been very vocal about the importance of the ecosystem and how he really wants to change IBM's model out there to embrace partners. And I have to say I think that's one of the smartest things I think I've heard IBM say in years and I know that that sounds self-serving because we are a partner but the reality is there's several different layers where that's really important. One is the value of the partner. And you mentioned that there's a need to integrate across different systems, right? So IBM is not gone are the days when customers only have IBM technology it's just not a thing. And so partners have the ability to work across different vendors, very hybrid, very unique types of environments and make sure that the IBM interest, the IBM footprint is well deployed, well represented and set up for future success so that customer is going to want to buy more in the future but in the context of what that customer's overall landscape is. So that's a big reason why IBM wants business partners involved with customers and we're a little bit more or at least we can work with customers from a consultative perspective, right? And make sure that they are comfortable with the decisions that they're making that isn't just the manufacturer telling them to buy our stuff. From a partner's perspective one of the biggest things that we struggle with in the marketplace is being known, right? I mean, we're a decent size partner with over a thousand employees but at the end of the day how many people know prolifics as a brand name versus how many people know IBM? So opening those doors partnering with the IBM sellers that have kind of an easier way in to introduce a partner and give us the credibility that, hey, we know prolifics. We've seen them be successful and help very large companies that are just like you be successful with our technology let them help you end to end is it's just a really good synergy as far as how you can actually how IBM can scale with their customers and how customers can realize that benefit of a broader ecosystem as well and skill sets. A great point. Arvin is very savvy on cloud. I know he loves hybrid cloud. He loves the cloud model. He's changing it with Red Hat. I think you're so smart and accurate on this whole change over around network effects, organic ecosystems playing a power dynamic in how people buy and nurture themselves. So I think there's going to be a nice change over there. I think you're onto something pretty big with that because look it it's multi-vendor at many levels now. It's IBM has to integrate here and you're a partner. You will know now you're on the cube. So we're going to get the word out here. But it's you're in a team. It's a group. It's not just about the customer. This is now a different mindset. This is what customers want because they're out in the organic field too. They're not just getting email sent to them. They're out and engaging. This is a new model. And you know, one of the things that's interesting that we're seeing from our customers as well is they're no longer looking to buy a product and then have somebody come in and install and implement. They're actually looking for guidance. They want ideas. Here's what I'm trying to do with my business. How can you help me? They're looking for an answer to that. And that requires a very different skill set. It's not just somebody who knows how to come in and spin up CDs and do some configurations. It's somebody who's worked in their industry before has worked with similar types of customers has a little bit of that road rash can provide some of that guidance. And in order to really do that, you can't find that just in one organization. So I would tell you actually, I mean, Proliphix is a, we're a pretty good sized company with a wide skill set but even we partner. We also partner with other partners to help complement our skills when there's particular expertise that's needed. So it really is a very interesting ecosystem development and a different way of thinking that it's not just about you and being able to do everything. It's about you being able to bring the right solution and the right ideas to a customer and to help them be successful for the longterm. Awesome insight, Kirsten Kraft, global head of business development and marketing at Proliphix, great to have you on and power of networks, power of partnerships, power of the ecosystem. The new world is here. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Thank you, great to be here. Okay, this is IBM Think 2021 coverage. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. Thanks for watching.