 Welcome back, everyone. This is live coverage from Las Vegas. This is theCUBE, SiliconANGLE's exclusive coverage by IBM Pulse, Premier Cloud Conference for IBM. This is theCUBE, our flagship program. We go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier, the founder of SiliconANGLE. I'm joined by my co-host, Dave Vellante, co-founder of wikibon.org. Our next guest is Pamela Webb, Chief Administrative Officer of Safeguard. Welcome to theCUBE. Right, thank you. Thanks for having me. So I got to ask all the guests who are non-IBMers. What do you think about the announcements here and the direction of IBM? Wow, definitely not your mother's IBM anymore, isn't it? So it's a huge change, isn't it? So the announcement of Bluemix, the Cloud Ant, I mean, it's just incredible where IBM is actually going and it's a very different IBM, very different feel, very exciting times, I think, at this point. I mean, it's innovative. They got to spring to their step with the cloud. And it's hanging together. I mean, it's not like they're throwing cloud out there saying, oh, we're doing some cloud. They really did their homework on this one. They did, they absolutely did. And it's been very interesting speaking to the different participants at the conference here in terms, I think, where a lot of people are actually struggling is, what does that mean to me and my cloud strategy? And I think where IBM is really trying to focus now is, how do I start helping clients define what that strategy actually looks like? So as someone out in the field and as a user, what are some of the challenges you've had with technology and the cloud? And what are some of the pressure points that you're guys getting under the work side? I mean, everyone's under pressure. We're all smiling. We get home and see the families and whatnot. But during the day, you've got work to do. What's changed and where the pressure is coming from? Pressure is speed. I think that's the biggest pressure for us is getting that competitive advantage and from a speed perspective. The competition is going fast. The different type of SaaS-based solutions is really helping competitors enter markets very quickly. You know, we happen to be a SaaS-based company ourselves and that's really what we're trying to provide for our clients as well, is the ability to scale very quickly, get to a predictable cost model, which is a huge factor for a lot of companies. So we definitely see it as a competitive advantage for us. So we had earlier on Steve Robinson who came on earlier. No, no, Chris O'Connor, Chris O'Connor mentioned this. Dave asked him about the cloud and he's in the smarter infrastructure side. He's like, hey, it's IBM as a service. It's as a service, not a replacement because of the blending on premise. And essentially what he was saying, with what Dave kind of intimated was, it legitimized shadow IT. Shadow IT became a practice of, hey, I got a deadline. I got a project. I got to get it done. IT's not home, you know, put on the credit card, put on Amazon, do something, go around IT in the shadows. Now, this is the same dynamic for IBM. It's fast, you get some options. So are you seeing that trend legitimize? You're seeing that pressure, IT getting it? Absolutely. I was just wondering, as you were saying that, I was wondering if you were actually speaking with my IT department as we go through this. Because we've seen from different parts of the business, you know, again, from a business side, you know, there's some things that we're looking at from a strategy perspective. How do we move very quickly? At the same time, we need our IT to be really focused on our core products and our infrastructure and our client services delivery. So when you start looking at back office solutions, marketing solutions, you know, we have a tendency, line of business, we like to kind of run with things very quickly. Yeah, because you want to get the ROI and opportunities and seize them. Right. For the competitors versus a sunk cost. Right. Yeah, pushing that rock up a hill, but it's liberating. So what have you guys done that's going to change that course? What do you see here that you say, hey, I'm going to use some of that blue mix? Is it blue mix? Is it like some of the more data center-driven stuff? What are you seeing here that's getting your attention? Well, I think, you know, so blue mix is very interesting. You know, we're embarking on a technology advancement in our company and we're looking at different ways of how do we enter that market very quickly. So looking at some of those strategies in general, we use, for our company, we actually use a lot of the collaborative solutions. So internally to solve some of our business problems, we actually have IBM Smart Cloud Engaged really changing the game for us in terms of transforming our business in terms of social collaboration and then also working with, we can also invite our customers into the process as well. So we found it not only helps us from a productivity standpoint, time to market, it helps us build a trust relationship with our clients because we are now open, transparent, and really- So you buy the whole social business thing? I do, I absolutely do. But I tell you, it's a change management issue. There's one way how individuals will work in their personal life, but work is a little bit different. So, you know, really working on changing that paradigm within our own organization. It really is a mindset issue. I mean, of course, people want to, you know, get better socially, but business can get closer to the customer. Right. Now you can actually do that with tools. You can actually instrument your customers. You can use big data. So it's a unique time, right? It is. And I think, you know, some of it, there's a fear factor. That's what it is. Like, you know, do we open up the kimono? Do we share all this information? And then, you know, you have some of the change management is knowledge is power, but, you know, for us, it's knowledge sharing is power, not holding that knowledge anymore. But that's a huge mindset change. We had David Pogon earlier from the MC and he was talking about, we were talking about, you know, consumer stuff. And we're talking about, you know, the kids that are in high school now are the iPhone generation, right? That never used a real phone that had cords on it, you know? So it's like, it's a generational shift. And I still like the beep. And so you're still at the voicemail. I was like, that didn't occur to me. I was like, wait a minute. There's still a need for voicemail. We actually talked about voicemail. Did you watch the interview? We actually talked about voicemail. I wonder if you could talk more about your business. Let me start with who you serve. So I got a lot of frustrations with our payroll experience. So I'm really interested in checking out your website. I just sent it to our, you know, head admin person. Check these guys out. So I don't know what you're talking about. So who do you serve? Sure. So Safeguard World International, we're a global payroll services company. So we provide global managed payroll. So we take on the outsourced services for our clients. We also have global employment outsourcing services. We have service delivery across 165 countries. We have clients as Fortune 1000 clients. We have emerging multinationals. We can provide payroll services for your one employee in Zimbabwe to 1,000 employees in France. So okay, so you also do staff augmentation. What kinds of things, mostly admin stuff? Well, what we actually do is, so not necessarily staff augmentation, but we work with companies that are trying to enter new markets. You're not ready to make that investment to go into the new market of setting the legal infrastructure, setting a bank. We help them become employer record. So we make them legal, pay their employees as they're investigating those new markets and then able to transfer them over. So it's like company as a service and then transfer it over. Right, absolutely, exactly. And now, talk about your differentiation. So we're all familiar with the large, big, slow payroll services. How are you guys different? Well, we've been- Sell me. We've been called the disruptor of the global payroll services industry. A lot of what we're trying to do is, first of all, we're solely focused on the multinational payroll businesses. A lot of our competitors, they actually serve a domestic market. And then, oh, by the way, we also have some multinational services as well. So many of our competitors have a very, I would say a very tight box. Because that's part of the challenge of how you develop different margins. The smaller you can make that box, the smaller service that you can deliver from a productivity perspective. Our differentiator is that we're very client-centric. We work with our clients, really focusing on their needs. We definitely come into the place with the best practice standard, but we have a lot of flexibility in how we can deliver that service for them as well. So to understand your big differentiator is you're serving companies that have multinational needs. Is that right? Absolutely. So it's not the small business in Boise. No, no. We actually focus on US and UK multinationals predominantly and serving where they provide client services across the globe. All right, John, maybe when we take the cube global. We can get you there. And okay, so you're the disruptor in the sense that you've got that uniqueness of your model, but there's also a technology platform that you can talk about. Right, yep. So we actually have, and this is also a huge differentiator for us as well. So there's a few different approaches of how you enter the multinational market. One view is how many companies started was creating this gigantic payroll engine that you would be processing all the multi-country rules within that engine. And it gets very expensive to maintain that. Most of our clients that come to us, they may have 1,000 employees in one country, but they have a lot of long-tales. They'll have five employees in country X, five employees in country Z. But to have a global infrastructure to actually have to fund those five employees, it's very expensive. So a model that we actually have is called, is more of an aggregator model. So we use a broad partner network. And not just a partner network, then you're dealing with very disparate types of solutions, which is some of our competitors. We actually have a global infrastructure that we manage all the data. We vet it, we manage. We have certified integrations with Fort Day, for example. And then we're able to do global reporting from a financial perspective, as well as any additional reports coming through. So we have an aggregator, not just managing the vendors, but the solution itself. You mentioned you have a certified integration with Fort Day, for example. What does that mean? So, wow, this is a huge for us. So Fort Day, obviously is expanding quite a bit. One of the big cost factors for clients in a multinational environment is actually how do you integrate all of these different countries into an HR system or into a finance system. Workday, we've been working with Workday. They actually have a very specific integration service that we have provided to Workday, all of the different payroll rules that are needed. So we know exactly the types of data that we need in the HR side of the system to be able to automatically integrate into the payroll side. So our clients aren't having to do that multiple times. So I wouldn't say it's a push a button plug, but it's a tight integration. And we also maintain as Workday continues to enhance their solution for us to be able to keep up to date with all those rules. So you're abstracting a lot of that complexity. And cost. And cost, yes. Sure, it ripples through the cost. And there gotta be nuances across the globe, right? Right. That's what you're standardizing essentially. Absolutely, and I think this is where a huge transformation with a lot of clients, they're really trying to figure out, part of the scenario is what type of data do I want to get out in the end? And the more that we can harmonize that data upfront, so what you're having is what a salary structure in one country is very different in another country. So how do you compare employer costs from France, where it has a very socialized system versus the US, it's a very different kind of cost structure. Now, you're not a technology practitioner. You're not a geek. I'm not a geek. Okay, so you're a line of business person. Talk more about your role as Chief Administrative Officer and how that relates to the geek side of the business. It does relate. So as a Chief Administrative Officer, I'm actually responsible for our Global Project Management Office, all of our client service delivery. So the Global PM, the implementation teams, the client service delivery team, so we actually have shared services centers in India, the UK, Mexico, and the US. So all of those teams are part of my operation, as well as I have a training, Safeguard University is our whole training program that we do as well as a compliance and audit in Six Sigma Team. Okay, so you run the PMO? Yes. And the PMO is not part of the IT organization, so you don't report to the CIO? Right, I report directly into the CEO of the company. Awesome, okay, great, you got a seat at the table. It's a seat at the table. So that's good, because a lot of times it just takes a long time to get stuff done. That's interesting. I mean, it makes a lot of sense because projects drive value in ROI, so the less hierarchy there is, the faster you can implement it, but it's somewhat unique. It is, and actually we're a great partner with our IT team. We've actually taken on, from a PM perspective, an organizational excellence, is actually we will support them and actually project manage their project. So we're looking at it from a broader organizational readiness perspective on some technology work that we're doing inside. So we're actually partnering with them to be the PM of their particular project. So you do have technology projects that you manage? We do, we do. Even though, I mean, are there pure technology projects? I have really smart people that work in my grade. Do you have pure technology projects, or is there a discipline or dogma that says, okay, all projects have to be associated with some kind of line of business initiative? How does that work? So we do have technology projects as our core delivery of our service. We do have different projects that are associated with lines of business, so for example, one of our technology projects is a workflow-enablement solution that we're delivering, but our project sponsor is actually our head of operations. So where I'm an executive sponsor of that, then we actually will have to tie everything to, we specify that everything has an executive sponsor, everything has a project sponsor before we take on a project. So now, how, I mean, I presume you're involved in certainly evaluating the business cases, but do you own the business case? In certain situations, I own the business case, but I don't want to be the Fox Garden, the hen house here on this one too, so we're very transparent when we deliver, and it's a different, it's a new discipline that we've actually introduced into our company on tree business cases, and I think it helps us in multiple ways, because first of all, it helps articulate what the actual requirement, what the business problem is, what the requirement, and what the benefits we expect to achieve. And it makes this, especially as you go through renewals of any type of scenarios, it makes us stay whole to that business case and make sure that we're validating across the board. So it starts with the CEO office determines the sort of overall objectives right of the organization, and so presumably the projects that you run have to map into those objectives. Exactly. So how does that decision management occur? Good question, good question through. So we actually have, our senior leadership team is all involved, so the way that our senior leadership team works, very collaborative, everybody's on board, everybody's buying, and we're completely working as a team together. We bring the projects to the table, so every business case is actually coming through the table ranked order, because there's also a lot of different types of projects that we would actually encounter, so you need to prioritize those as well. Bring them to the table, the decisions made, and then we move and go. So you rank them based on what, some kind of ROI metric or alignment metric? We do. So there's, what is the expected return? What's the impact to our clients? What's the impact from a market perspective? What we need to manage? Is there just an overall productivity issue that we need to solve? So there's several different factors. Do you rate them too? Because one small project might have a very high rank, but it might not have as big a business impact. How do you manage that? We do. We have a waiting solution. I think that the types of projects that we're bringing in are pretty obvious for us, but there is an element of waiting. We haven't got into such finite scenario that we, exactly. Can you do this on spreadsheets or do you have a balance scorecard system? We have a mechanism that we're doing from a, there's a spreadsheet type of basis that we're doing from a cost model. I tell you that, I think that's the biggest technology solution out there. We all know how to use it. Exactly. So you said they're very easy. Spamela, I want to get to your take as we're coming up on time here on, just your impressions of the show, the presentations, the breakout sessions. As a customer, what's your take of IBM's event here? I think this particular event is an exciting event. I also attend a connect as well. So it's different from a line of business versus very IT focused. For me as a line of business person, what I found is very interesting is I think every line of business individual needs to have an appreciation from an IT perspective and the solutions out there to bring to the table. The content has been outstanding. The different types of offerings that they've been providing has been extremely helpful for all different types of levels that's flown. My final question is for other IT folks out, I mean, other lines of business folks out there who have potential IT challenges or harmoniously with IT and or IT folks, advice to folks out there about how to navigate these waters, the transformations that are out there, it's a sea change, certainly. There's cultural mind shifts that need to take place. Speed, what's your advice, those folks? Yeah, I think, you know, we were talking before about from a business case perspective and I think that's really key from a collaborative standpoint that you're actually working with IT and line of business together with a formal business case. I think what IT can do is put some framework together in terms of what that landscape will look like because at the end of the day, IT also has to support some of these decisions. So even if we're talking, you know, SaaS based solutions, if I'm in an office in Mexico, do I have the right bandwidth to be able to support those from a connectivity standpoint? So, you know, there's definitely a partnership that takes place there. So I think it's from a business case but also to look at opportunity cost as well. So not only for the point solution that you're looking at but what other types of values or that you can eliminate from this particular business case as well. This is a cube inside IBM Pulse Live exclusive coverage from SiliconANGLE and the cube that we'll be right back with our next guest at this short break. Stay with us.