 Okay, we're back. This is Dave Vellante. I'm with Wikibon.org. I'm here with my colleague, Stu Miniman. We're live at HP Discover. This is theCUBE, SiliconANGLE.tv's continuous coverage of HP Discover. We're going wall to wall. We're just off from Orlando. Our team is behind me. I was there yesterday, you know, covering the IBM Edge event. And this is HP Discover, HP's big customer event. Meg Whitman this morning gave a keynote, really reaffirming HP's culture and its value proposition, its differentiation in the marketplace. And Stu, I'm really excited about this segment. Jason Cohen is the CIO of Das Omnicom. Now, Stu, the reason why I'm so excited about this is we've talked for years about the elusive IT value topic, right? IT is a cost center. And Jason, first of all, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you for having me. And you are basically transforming your information technology into a value creation source. Maybe it's not technically a profit center. Maybe it is. We're going to talk about that. But it's all about the value that you're bringing with a partnership with a huge technology company. So, first of all, welcome. Thanks very much for coming on theCUBE. Thank you for having me. So, yes. I am Jason Cohen. I'm the Chief Information Officer of Diversified Agency Services, which is the largest division of Omnicom Group. Omnicom Group is a strategic holding company supporting many marketing services organizations. The DAS Group is 100 plus companies made up of very entrepreneurial, smart organizations that acted very independently and act very independently. But we're taking the bold step now of integrating them into a singular IT strategy. Clearly want to make sense, but also allowing them to maintain their own independence so that they can continue to perform for their clients. So, organizationally, what's their reaction been to that? You know what? There's been a lot of positive reaction because this will give an opportunity for many companies to take advantage of our state-of-the-art offering that they may not be able to do by themselves. So, the smaller to midsize agencies are very happy to have the opportunity to get something that could help drive their business and support their clients. The larger agencies are focusing on how do we continue to integrate larger offices, larger teams of people. So, it's been a huge challenge culturally and technologically. So, talk about your transformation and the role that you're playing there. What's that journey look like? So, you really have to take it to the most basic tenants of our organization. We for the longest time talked about our agencies being independent and they are. We had to migrate and change a mindset from thinking independently to thinking as a group, using technology tools in order to affect that change. So, we're spending a considerable amount of time focusing on creating a unified team. Right now, there's over 100 different IT teams across the entire organization. So, we're trying to create a unified team. We're creating unified standards. We're creating a unified message so that we can go to the market as an organization at any level and ensure that we're providing top-notch client service, which is our ultimate goal. So, where did this initiative come from? What was the big driver? You know, I think the big driver was technology is a huge disruptor in our space. If you go back maybe even just 10 years ago, you had traditional media driving life, right? There were TV spots, there were radio spots, print, then all of a sudden the Internet and blogging and social media and all of the tools that are necessary to support your clients came to the forefront of what we needed to do as an organization to support our clients. So, we saw this disruption, recognized it, and said, we need to prepare continuously to be able to support our clients and support any type of tool. Remember, people talk about things moving digital. There is no more digital, the line is blurred, everything is digital. It is not a separate component, it is now all one component. So, it's very important for us to get in front of that and behind all of those solutions to support our clients. We love the disruption, of course. We use wikis, we got the cube, and we've got big data going on. We were talking offline about the dreaded white paper. So, where's social fit into all this and how are you guys leveraging that? So, we are taking a look at, as you look at our transition and you look at our journey, our organization said, why don't we demonstrate to our agencies, our agency's customers, and our partners how we're going down this journey. And you and I were joking offstage about Porto Novelli, one of the DOS PR companies, had come to me and said, a completely different subject. How do we get through to IT people? And I said, stop with the white papers, please. So, we saw this opportunity where we could take what we're doing in the community and show this journey in real time, us evolving. It shows CIO colleagues an inside view as to how to make this happen. It shows our partners how we're utilizing their tools. And it shows our clients our state of the art positioning on technology. So, it really provides a holistic approach to show the way we're moving forward. It's really refreshing to hear you have that openness. So many CIOs are worried that this is what makes my differentiation in the marketplace, if my competitors follow me, how do you worry about the competition just kind of doing it? What separates you from that? You know, I certainly worry about ensuring that we can deliver our clients information however they want it. But we have tools from HP, from partners that allow us to safely, securely deliver information and demonstrate that. So, when you talk a lot about CIOs and not wanting to sort of do, sort of demonstrate what they're doing, I think some of that is that old school of, hey, this is what we're doing and we'll show it. But you know what, the world's not like that anymore. The more collaborative you can be, the more solutions driven you can be, the better you can support your clients and that's the name of the game for us. Yeah, and the media business obviously is transforming everybody's sort of written about and knows well the whole print publication, you know, challenges that are going on. But media is just everywhere it's all around us. You're seeing large companies become media companies. You see any other panel organizations like us, you know, jump into the media business. You guys, what is data play in this whole thing, Jason? What's the data angle? Data is everything. I mean, I'll give you a good example. I was joking with my 17-year-old daughter, Amanda. And I was saying, or we were watching TV and I said, you know, none of your friends ever call the house. And she said, they don't know the phone number or home phone number. And I said, and Amanda looked at me and said, I don't even think I know her home phone number. But she was making an interesting point. She was telling me the way the world was moving forward. It was around data, whether it be text messaging. It was around data, whether it be social media, Facebook, Twitter, a whole host of solutions, whether it be YouTube, which is where her predominant media comes from today, in addition to television and radio and other tools. Data is everywhere. It's real time. It's delivered constantly. And you have to be able to demonstrate to your clients how you can deliver their data. Data is everywhere. It's the question is, how can you deliver that data? Yeah, so it's interesting, you heard about your discussion with your daughter. Why don't we even have home phone landlines anymore, right? And you've seen the same thing happen with email now. My daughter says, well, I guess if I, if you want me to get an email, I will, but I just use Facebook, right? So, okay, so a lot of the CIOs we talk to tell us their single biggest challenge with so-called big data is how do you get value out of it? How do you monetize that? Do you spend your time thinking about that? You know, I do in a lot of ways, but I really focus on how we can deliver the data across almost any platform and across any vehicle. I think there's a lot of time spent on creating sort of that perfect solution. However, I think we all know that technology disruption is instantaneous these days. So I think if you can create the vehicle, if you take a look at our journey that we're talking about here, this living case study, the journey is almost the road. And if we create the road, we can implement solutions along the way. You have to have the foundation. So to me, delivering the data is all gonna be based on what our sort of foundation is, what our solutions are. So your role is to really be the facilitator of that platform so that your line of business execs can figure out how to monetize that data. Is that gonna know that better than you are? I exist to be able to support our agencies. I exist to give them the tools so that they can go out and develop what they need to for their clients. Again, looking at DOS, diversified agency services, the keyword is diversified. There are many different companies in that stable of companies. We have to be able to give them the foundation and then allow their entrepreneurial spirit to pick the solutions that are best for their clients. So what are you doing here at HP Discover? What kind of activities do you have going on? So HP is a huge partner of ours. We have made a significant time and partnership investment with them. They are providing us soup to nuts solutions across everything from networking, servers, storage. We're all in with HP. HP is a huge partner, a huge factor for our success and really have helped us drive the progress we've made today. I'll make an interesting point. As I look at where I define HP, HP to me is that partner that you need, right? If you look at technology today, everybody, people use word like commodity. They use things like deliberate now, make sure you get it done. Well, I've partnered with HP for the last, I don't know, 15 years, but even more closely over the last nine to 12 months. If I tell you they understand the customer, I'm not telling you anything other than they have been available to me 24 hours a day. I mean, I'm talking about senior executives that will give you their home number. So if I have a networking issue, I get a call back within two hours. That's one of the greatest challenges which a lot of people don't talk about that challenge a CIO, which is when you pick a partner, is that partner gonna be with you throughout that whole journey? Not just as you're purchasing, not just as you're providing sort of the opening, but going through those bumps because let me tell you, you're not gonna make a significant change like we're making without some significant bumps. Did you get a chance to hear Meg Whitman's keynote this morning? I did. Yeah, so she was forthright about the turmoil at the top and we've been talking about that. What do you make of that as a CIO? How much time do you spend thinking about that? How much of a concern is that to you and what did you think about Meg's message? I thought Meg's message was excellent. I actually, to answer your question, I actually, my experience is I judge my relationships based on what partner, what the person I'm working with and I will tell you at every layer within HP, I'm getting constant support, whether that's technical support, logistical support, sales support. My experience with HP is they understand the customer. They understand what it's like to move. They understand what it's like to make a huge transition and it was very much like Jeffrey said in there. If you're going really to the wall with a huge project like we're doing, they are the premier partner and I will tell you I experience it every day and I think they are a phenomenal company that provides what's most important, which is the customer care. I've said this a lot to my colleagues. At the end of the day, it's all going to boil down to what can be delivered for you or me as the customer and I've had a tremendous experience with them on the customer side so I'm pretty darn happy. So Jason, HP's portfolio's gone through a lot of change since you've been working with them. If you look, you know, networking, to style back just a few years and that was mostly a partnered offering as opposed to now it's mostly through acquisitions and development, you know, how has that interface been? Have you gone through a lot of different reps and who you've been dealing with or just walk us through that a little bit? It's funny that you say that. We actually, I have had the same general rep for the last nine years. Good patch. Yeah, I mean it's been a great run. Kind of crazy to leave it. John and I have actually become really good friends. So, you know, to your point, as they've evolved and acquired companies, they've brought in new folks, right? Whether it be sales folks, architects, engineers. But what's good about it is it's seamless to me. I have John, for example, in this particular case, sort of at the head of the train, kind of guiding me through each and every sort of path that we're going on. And so we evolved as a partner of HP. You know, we are PCs. We are printers. We are storage. We have just made a significant partnership with networking. And it's been one of the most amazing experiences that I've had in the fact that it's all intertwined. There's something to be said in my experience about the one stop shopping. There's something to be said about the integration tools when you're working together on a cohesive team. So I've been fortunate. I've had the same team. The folks that have been integrated into our team do a really nice job of listening, learning, adapting. Because we're a challenging company. Imagine if you had over 100 plus companies all with different IT and different solutions. You need a lot of time and a lot of patience and you need to listen very well. So you're saying that so being an all HP shop simplifies your life? And the obvious question there is aren't, you know, you're worried about the lock in because we've been having a sort of a debate here in the queue, but who is really, they're all saying they're open. IBM, I was at IBM yesterday, where are the most open company? EMC says, where are the most at VMware? Where are the most open? And, you know, the definition of open changes over time. HP, you know, of course, putting forth it's open messaging. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, you know, the whole lock in concern. You know, I think all the companies that you mentioned are all significant blue chip, smart technology companies. And I think that lock in is a very interesting term. And I also think open is a very interesting term. But you get to the point, maybe been doing this almost 20 years, you get to the point where the partnerships that you're looking for are business driven base. They are driven by the need for you to deliver to your clients, in this case, my agencies, the solutions or the roadmap to those solutions. And taking a look at what HP has delivered for us has given us an opportunity to expand well beyond where we've gone before. So you're right, you hear a lot of these terms and you hear a lot of these sort of ideas. But at the end of the day, where I'm most blessed in my relationship is on the customer care piece. I'm probably a unique CIO that I spend most of my time focusing on the customer care piece because I know if I can't support those 100 plus agencies, I won't have a job. But I think you're lucky in the sense that, you know, you hear a lot from my tea practice of being asked to do more with less and our budget is getting cut. I mean, that's not the message that I'm hearing from you. You're talking about how to enable my business, your business person first. Yeah, I try to be a business person but it's an interesting thought that you have. Yes, you're being asked to do more with less but that challenges you to be more efficient and think differently. That gives you the opportunity to explore, what else can I be doing? What else could I be achieving? Am I using my resources? Am I using my team to the best of my ability? What we're going through throughout this whole disruption is making us think differently. And I think one of the challenges being the CIO myself is CIOs in general, we like in our project, for example to moving a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. It's a little scary. It's a little challenging. So when you talk about doing more with less, yeah, that scares you. The smart CIO will take advantage of it and say, how do I use this opportunity to think differently? Who do I partner with? How do I support my companies better? And how do I make a difference in the agencies? In my case, the agency's life. So as you consolidate these 100 plus agencies, are you essentially the cloud service provider for these agencies? Yes, we are a private cloud within our organization. And again, giving them world-class solutions so that they can go to any one of their clients regardless of how big or small they are. We have some DOS agencies that would be considered small business and some very large, significant clients. Giving them a state-of-the-art technology platform will allow them to support all of their clients. Do you model your business off of a managed service provider? I mean, do you do charge backs? And is it a swipe the credit card mentality? Is that sort of a more of a hybrid? You know, it's interesting because as I take a look at the most value I could bring to our companies, the most value I could bring to our companies is giving them the correct infrastructure. You have to think about, you made an interesting point about charge backs and everything else, which is I always find that funny as I listen to people say that. You realize you pay for it one way or the other, right? You realize if you don't do it properly, smartly, and what I'll call using technology as disruptor, from the perspective of investing properly, you're not going to be able to support your clients. Your agencies are not going to be able to deliver what you need them to deliver. So I think in a lot of ways we're taking a more strategic approach, which is what is it specifically we need to give our agencies to be successful in business. Jason, I'm wondering if you have any kind of lessons learned that you'd say to your peers, something you've learned, kind of this cloud managed environment that you said, geez, if I had to understand this better, if I could position this better, you know, things would have gone a little smoother. You know, we've definitely had some, the joke in the department is we've definitely had some cloudy days. And I think we'll continue to have cloudy days. This is an 18 month journey. And probably longer, well beyond me. This will be something my successor will deal with at some point way down the road. I would say we did some really smart things. We invested a lot of time in communications, in change management, in listening to our needs and requirements of our clients. I think we made some early assumptions. For example, we think that people we need this amount of storage or they need this type of, you know, architecture. And I think one of the challenges that we had was this was a whole new world for us. And we almost had to step back and see what we, our clients, in this case our agencies and their clients, really needed. So I think one of the things I'd really challenge any CIO to do is spend the first period of time, whether it's three weeks, three months, six months, listening to your constituents, listening to what your clients, whoever they are, whether it's an end user, a company, a division, an agency, and listen to their needs and challenge their needs on today, tomorrow, and the long term. All right, Jason, thank you very much. We're out of time. Really great mindset on versus, you know, IT as a cost center. We talked about at the top of the segment. Really, IT is a value generator. It's been elusive, but you're a living example. Congratulations on your successes. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks for spending time with us on theCUBE. Thank you very much. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, this is theCUBE. We're live at HP Discover. Keep it right there. We'll be right back. Thanks, Jason.