 from the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. It's theCUBE, covering UiPath. Forward 4, brought to you by UiPath. Welcome back to Las Vegas Live, the CUBE. Yes, it's live in Las Vegas at the Bellagio. Lisa Martin with Dave Vellante. We are covering UiPath Forward 4. Very excited to be here talking with customers, UiPath employees, partners. Lots of great conversations going on about automation and the acceleration that we're seeing, especially in the last 18 months. We've got two guests here with me today to talk about emerging technologies, specifically continuous process discovery. Please welcome Pallak Kadikia, VP of Product Management at UiPath, and Layla Dellich, CIO and Digital Officer at Coca-Cola. Ladies, welcome to the program. Thank you, it's great to be here. So let's talk about, Pallak, let's start with you. Continuous process discovery, define that for us. What does that mean? So process discovery has been a concept that's been around for a while, right? It's enterprises have a bunch of processes that are deployed and people are following them. The concept of discovery has existed. What we're trying to do with continuous process discovery is enable you to identify the processes, figure out how to optimize them, and then automate them. Once they're automated, we want to monitor them and then keep doing that cycle over and over again, using technology rather than having people fill in paperwork and then having those processes go out of status like right away because they're just becoming stale. With continuous process discovery, they don't become stale. You're getting that real time feedback loop and you're getting the processes to work end to end continuously. So I wonder if I could follow up on that because I remember when you guys made the acquisition of Process Gold and so as somebody who's heavily involved in product management, how did you go about, I mean, it sounds like it's seamless, but it never is, right? But how did you go about integrating and making it appear as though it's just kind of part of the platform? I mean, there's a lot goes into that, right? Process Gold was a great technology to begin with. So it wasn't a huge stretch for us to take it and integrate it and make it part of the platform. Typically when we acquire companies, we look for product market fit, we look for technology fit, we look for people fit and we had that with Process Gold. The other thing to add there is process discovery, specifically with Process Gold and automation go hand in hand. You can't, having one without the other is kind of leaving half of your solution on the table and just focusing on understanding and not focusing on implementation. And so it was very easy to take that technology and make it part of the hyper-automation platform. So Lila, the reason why I ask that question is because it sort of coincides with a customer's journey where you go from sort of an individual department and then now you're saying, I always say pave the call path, you know, kind of take a process that I know, I'll just implement that, even it might not be the best process I'm going to repeat. And it takes you to a new realm. And so this is to me, this is all about how incumbent companies, 100 plus year old companies can actually be digital disruptors as opposed to being disrupted themselves, right? A lot of smart people running these big companies. So last time we talked, you were relatively new inside of a year. So how's the journey going and how does it tie in to some of the advancements that UiPath has made? Yeah, absolutely. So the journey is going great. I like to work, you used accelerate. So I'm here to accelerate and transform. And why we have to do it is so that we don't become obsolete and we continue to be relevant for our customers, for our employees, very important and for our community. So we are doing a lot of finished running, a lot of initiatives. When we look at being relevant for the customer, that means we have to transform the way we operate and our business models. We have to generate new revenue streams now that are enabled and based on data and technology. While you do that, you have to create efficiency internally. You cannot create great experiences with customers and you work with very monolithic and very old school traditional processes or ways of working and systems. So you have to make sure that you adapt and change and transform the way you work internally to meet the customer's needs and demand and generate these new business models. So our starting position was automation. We have to automate at an extreme speed, but we also wanted to go really far with automation, not just fast and hit with task automation and just automate these traditional 50, 60 year old processes. But how do we identify what else is there? There's a well of opportunity when you look at an end-to-end process. So that's where process mining as Palak described comes into play. And actually we started affiliating with process mining during process gold. So your question around how the integration went, we actually went through that. I think the UI pads, one key value that they have and they should never use is listening to the customer. So we got together with UI pads and we said there's more to what we can do with automation and we implemented process mining for one end-to-end process, amazing results. Just one country, one end-to-end process, amazing results, but it's because of the partnership. We know what we need to achieve, what we have to do and they know how to help us to get the technology up and running or adapt the technology and improve the technology. So that's where we are achieving outcomes. We are generating new business model, new revenue stream, automating internally, re-skilling and up-skilling our people, which is extremely important that comes along with automation. So very excited. Sorry, but that redesign of work is very important and the CIO's role is very important in that as well. I wanted to talk though about something that you just said with respect to the listening piece that UI pad is so good at. This morning in the keynote, Mary said to all the, which was standing room only, which was amazing to see in this day and age, but that they wanted to hear from customers, what are we doing right? What are we not doing that you want to see more of? What do you want to see less of? Talk to me about the direction and advice that you as the CIO of Coca-Cola is able to provide to PLOCK and the team about where UI pad is going. It's really on a very fast cadence. Absolutely. So as Coca-Cola H&J we started the journey with UI pad three years ago, exactly. I was on the job and the second big technology decision I made was UI pad. And since then it was very consistent listening, but during our cab meeting, Daniel said something. He said, I'm not welcoming the request. He said, we welcome, he said, no, no, sorry. I am not welcoming. I'm requesting you to give us insight. And I think that's very critical. That's what we want to hear. At the end of the day, we are technologists, we are talk leaders, but we are better talk leaders with our technology partners. We want technology partners to show us the way sometimes. And with low code, no code type of approaches and the evolution of the technology that UI path is, has been running since the past three years is helping us remove so many barriers when it comes to people. They are listening to us in terms of the roadmap and what should be implemented and what should be prioritized. We are providing with to them our roadmap, our vision on where we want to go in automation and how bell we want to integrate with other ecosystem and environments that we have. They are listening to us in terms of for the existing products, what can be improved, what can work better. And we don't need a cab actually for UI pad to listen to us. We work hand in hand with UI pad team continuously. We coin away sometimes. And that's what we want them to continue to do. They are great technologists. As long as they continue to listen to us, they're going to be greater technologists. So that's why, go ahead please. Yeah, and I'll share my perspective on this. This, you know, these partnerships actually make us build better products, right? We get to, this is how we stay ahead of the curve by listening to our customers because they're the ones who are doing the implementations. They understand how our product works. We can design it, we can test it, but that's the extent to which we can go. Once they implement it is when we know what's working, what's not working, and how do we take that feedback and make better products. So it's a two-way street. We love hearing from them constantly. But you have to decode what the customer is saying sometimes, right? Like Steve Jobs said, you know, if you just ask the customer what they want, you'll never build, you know, something that's game changing, the world changing. But so you have to, you talk to Layla, you get the input from Coca-Cola, maybe many, and then other customers to figure out, okay, how can I apply this so that actually can scale and meet the needs of many customers, not just, because otherwise you end up being, you know, a custom development shop, which ironically is what you guys were 20 years ago, whatever it was, right? So it's kind of some art involved in the science of listening, isn't it? There is definitely, I mean, most of our job as product managers is to design the product, right? It's very much art. And the feedback that we get from Layla and others really just helps us focus on a vision. But, you know, keeping up with new technology trends, figuring out how to bring AI into our product vision, and looking beyond what we're being told and asked for, and looking forward at what the next trends are going to be in technology is what helps us continue to innovate. So it's both, it's the balance of what we're hearing, but also technologies and what's possible with what's available. Layla, a question for you. You said three years ago, you guys brought in UiPath. Right after you joined the company as a CIO, why UiPath? Clearly you looked at some of the other folks, you mentioned the company that they acquired, but in your mind differentiates what they're able to deliver on the partnership side and the technology side. Yeah, very important question. We have a definition for a technology partner. For us, the technology partner needs to meet criteria of innovating. So how much do you invest in innovation? And Daniel says, I don't even know the number, right? So, because we want them to be on the forefront. Sometimes they have to pull us and sometimes we have to pull them. The second one is very important for a company to be successful in automation or in any advanced technology, you have to build intellectual property within your enterprise. And we did not want to outsource technology, we wanted to insource technology and we asked UiPath if they would be willing to co-innovate, co-develop, collaborate with us. They were the only ones who allowed us to build the intellectual property within my enterprise because that's the way I'm going to innovate. And that's the way I'm going to help product leaders like Palak to create better products, right? So, and the third one is just building expertise, low-code, no-code. The technology company needs to innovate where they remove some of the barriers for me to find the skills or develop talent. How easy it is to find the talent and skills to develop this technology, right? And what does the technology company do to develop skills? So, these are a few criteria that we have and then when the company ticks all of those, they are in. I'm interested in kind of shift the conversation if I may in your role. It's not uncommon to see a CIO and a chief digital officer together, but it's quite uncommon at a large firm like Coca-Cola. And I'm wondering, is that how the company, because your group, chief's information in digital, is that how the company's organized that you plug into somebody who has that dual role? Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. So, Coca-Cola Chijek is within the Coca-Cola system. We are one of the leading butlers within the Coca-Cola system. The reason I merged the two roles is to be successful in the digital era. When you have the digital and IT separated, if IT goes a little slower, you cannot be successful in digital and you cannot be successful in generating new revenue streams or new business models. So, you have to orchestrate that evolution and transformation of IT and the rest of the business together. And that's why I merged the two roles. We are unique as Coca-Cola Chijek. How did you merge them? You say you merged those roles. Like, did you come at it from the, were you digital first and then? Yeah, exactly. Were you CIO first? I, digital first. I built, absolutely. Now that makes sense. Great point. I built from scratch and started with the digital strategy and then we went into defining what roles, what skills do we need? And then we redefined what are the improvements we need on the IT side, but it was all digital product based. Because I think it would be much harder for a CIO, let alone a woman CIO, no offense, but I don't think there's any offense there, but oh, she's trying to do a land grab. I can see that happening. But the digital officer title, because that's the hot title. And it's the visionary. It's the top one. Right. And a lot of times it's undefined. Absolutely. Yeah, so that's, And that, that's the structure of the organization. So you roll up into a merge? Yeah, because I came into the XCOM role, I had the privilege to kind of shape it from scratch. You want me? This is how it's going to work. Yes, exactly. And like Shankar was talking about Hidden Brain and all the change this morning, it was a change in terms of how we're going to approach digital, it was a change in terms of all the people who are part of the Coca-Cola JJ company and people who have been in technology or IT before. Now the expectations are very different. You have to be product organization. You have to be outcome centric. You have to generate revenue streams. So it's very different from the world of IT. I think any IT or any technology leader can do this if they are willing to transform themselves first and then their organization. And then they can transform the rest of the company. As the chief digital officer, data is a big part of your role. You're not the chief data officer. It's part of the organization. It's part of my organization, yes. Okay, so the CDO reports into it? Yes. Okay, and that individual sure is responsible for governance and compliance and all those? Absolutely, data management, data governance, the foundation and all the database solutions that are developing. See, I think you got it right. I think this idea of creating stovepipes, it's not as productive and it's harder to make decisions that are aligned with the organization's goal. Right, and we're going to be bolder. So we're going to disrupt further. Our goal now is to create platforms and then democratize the platforms. So our operating partners can learn the new skills and they can develop their own use cases on the platforms. And that way we'll go much further and much faster in terms of the generation of new revenue streams, changing operating models, data and technology, I call it the new operating system of any business and everybody must learn these skills. Well, and that's what I want to ask you about because if you think about a company and incumbent like Coca-Cola, your processes over the years in your data, maybe they were organized around the bottlers, or the distribution channel, et cetera, and that might not be the best process. So you have to take a look at that and then use process mining to say, actually, what is the best process to reinvent yourself? Absolutely, we are re-engineering and reinventing in a lot of places. Process mining helped us in short order to cash cycle, every company has ordered to cash process, we took an order to cash process, which we recently standardized, by the way, we thought we did. And then process mining told us that very few times you go through the happy path, most of the times you go out of the happy path. So gave us a lot of tangible outcomes where we improve the cycle time and it's an interesting process because you touch the customer. It impacts your delivery and your commitments to the customer and it makes life easier for the employees when you improve the process. This is only one piece. We are also transforming the way we are interacting with our customers using digital names and digital channel. But one thing is very valuable with us. While we do all of this, staying hybrid is very important. Like with everything else we do, that human touch and personal relationship with our customers and consumers is invaluable. So we're going to keep that. Doesn't matter how digital we go or how much technology we implement, we're going to keep the customer and consumer connect. The most valuable asset that we have. Absolutely, it is. Go ahead. I was going to say this is the one thing that we think about when we're designing our products, right? It's how can process mining help you optimize your workflows such that you can spend more time with the customer, such that you can spend more time and get back to them faster. That's critical. I always say the employee experience is inextricably linked to the customer experience. And so what you just talked about, you talked about so much stuff that I'd love to unpack. We probably don't have time. But coming in as with a transformation mindset one, being, you mentioned, you know, leaders need to be willing to embrace that. Obviously you were, but as a CIO working with UiPath, you're really helping to redefine work and also that customer experience to an extent. How does UiPath help facilitate that? So because they are listening and they are willing to partner with, and I think the most importantly, they're going to be part of our outcomes. They care about our outcomes. And going back to your question, how do you select a technology partner? That was one of the critical items. Outcomes are very critical. If there's no outcome, there's no point in it. We are not doing technology for the sake of doing it. We are, yes, we are all excited with what technology can bring and removing barriers very important, which is a huge, another huge topic. But if you don't generate an outcome, it's meaningless. And UiPath is willing to understand the outcome we are generating. So it's less of a commercial discussion, more of a technology and outcome conversation. So whether it's a customer outcome or an employee outcome or a cash outcome, financial outcome, I think that's why we have been successful and we have been on the journey with UiPath. Process mining, I think we are one of the very few clients, right, customers of UiPath, who are using it. And because we are a very progressive organization, UiPath is listening to our feedback and implementing back to your earlier question. You have so many customers, who do you listen, right? So when you are progressive and you really know what you are doing, you are also pulling UiPath, a big technology company into a direction that is more meaningful. So they listen to us in terms of what to improve with process mining. And that's why we were able to achieve the outcomes. And now they are listening to us further, on further improvements on process mining so that we can capitalize on further outcomes and benefits of process mining. So order to cash is common, use case. So what, were there any diamonds in the rough or do you suspect there are? Oh, we already realized. Yeah. Maybe some examples. Yes, we realized multiple tangible outcomes. We discussed this with Palak earlier today. One of them is, and some very interesting I'm not able to share, but the most critical one is we focused on improving cash cycle. It's an, you can imagine, extremely full flow business. Even within FMCG, right? We as Coca-Cola system, we are an extremely flow business. It's an instant consumption business. Hence your delivery and cash cycles are very different compared to other industries. So we said, we want to improve cash. We discovered that we improved the invoice due date change which impacts the payment terms by 20%. We improved credit limit approvals by 5% by removing unnecessary approval steps. We realized there were unnecessary approvals. These two are directly impacting our customers as well because it's waiting in somebody's queue to handle those approvals. And the customer is not getting the delivery because it's payment. Payment and delivery go hand in hand. And the third one is, and I'm not able to articulate the exact outcome, but it's a very critical day, average day gain on getting cash. So it's a cash gain. The next big outcome is the cycle time improvement. So we significantly improved the cycle time of the process and this means efficiency for our employees. We are making life easier for them. The last one is, again, a tangible one, 30,000 hours back in terms of productivity. One process, one country, 30,000 hours. That translates into, exactly, that translates into benefit for the customer. You increase customer satisfaction. You increase employee satisfaction because you remove all the non-valued works. So going back to Palak's point around continuous discovery. That's why I love it. It's like good old Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is exactly that. You want to continuously improve the process. You don't do it once. With process mining, we don't want to do it once. We want to do it continuously. But this time, with automation. Before we go, I'm the lone male on the panel, so I have to ask. So you see IOC, a chief digital role. Very uncommon, let alone uncommon for a woman. Big time product management person, okay? That's cool, check. You've been in the industry for a while, now a celebrity on the cube and elsewhere. So has the pandemic, how has the pandemic affected the whole women in tech trend? Has it slowed it down? Has it accelerated? We were talking earlier about the working moms feeling like waist-dressed out more than the working dads, double 30% versus 15%. Has the pandemic in your minds altered in any way? Those women in tech meme? How so? Positive, negative? So we are trying to turn the negative into a positive. It is negative, absolutely. I think it impacted everybody. All women in all industries and in all areas of operation and workforce. Woman in technology is already a very slim, right? It's a very tiny layer within any company and out there in the society. And unfortunately, the challenges that came with COVID impacted and some of them had to leave and they couldn't stick around, right? So we are trying to turn that into positive. As a digital function, we have a big give back initiative. It's a priority of the digital team. I'll be talking about that very in an hour. Technology removes barriers. So we have to turn this into a positive. Yes, COVID has impacted everybody personally and directly or indirectly. But now with technology, we can remove barriers. We have now flexible working and hybrid working models being ramped up across all geographies and all industries and all companies. Technology removes barriers. We can teach technology to a lot of people and our communities and they can join because we have huge skill gaps in technology. That what's sad is we have huge scarcity of skills in technology and we have very few people but we are talking about women dropping out or any type of minor to dropping out, right? So we can leverage and improve and turn it around. I hope we'll accomplish to do that. We started doing that in our company and in Turkey and we are trying to expand that across multiple other countries with NGO partnerships helping women to gain certain skills so that they can join the economy again from wherever they are. Thank you for that. And from my point of view, I think there are two aspects as Layla said, it has affected women a little bit more but I've also seen in some cases it has leveled the playing field a little bit because there's, you know, everybody's on Zoom. The kids show up on Zoom cameras for men just as much as they do for women. So it helps shine a light on things that we would normally go through that nobody would know about. And I thought that was a really cool outcome to some degree of this, you know, my manager, Param has little kids and they'd be in his background all the time just as my little kids would be in my background. And I'm like, oh wow, so you know how it feels to be the caregiver at home. And I thought that was a positive outcome of the whole being a female in technology. I like that. That's something that I hadn't thought about it in terms of leveling the playing field like that. There's, in this situation, there are both positives and negatives. I like how you're seeing the playing field level a bit more and how you're Coca-Cola looking to, how can we turn this negative into a positive? A lot of opportunities there. We uncovered a lot in the last, I'm going to guess, 20 minutes. Talking about continuous process discovery all the way to women in technology, how you're each doing that and what your perspectives are. I wish we had more time, we could keep going. But ladies, thank you for joining David Mead. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. For Dave Vellante, I'm Lisa Martin, live in Las Vegas at the Bellagio. UI Path Forward 4, we'll be right back.