 Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering Informatica World 2017, brought to you by Informatica. Hey, welcome back everyone. We're live in San Francisco. This is theCUBE's exclusive coverage of Informatica World 2017. It's theCUBE, our flagship program. We go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier with SiliconANGLE on theCUBE. My co is Peter Burris, head of research for SiliconANGLE Media as well as general manager of wikibon.com research. Our next guest is Sally Jenkins, executive vice president, chief marketing officer, new to Informatica, not new to the industry, but certainly put her mark on the show with the new branding. Sally, welcome to theCUBE. Great to have you. Thank you. And I know you must be exhausted all the work you've done. Thank you. We're running on adrenaline, I can tell you that, but it's all good. We feel really good about it. So this is our third year following Informatica. We know a lot of the folks from other companies see some semantic product guys now running the show at Informatica. Always had great product chops. But with this industry transformation with cloud, just in the past three, four years, there's been a massive shift and wave. And the pecking order of winners is changing pretty quickly. Informatica, when private, kind of like what Dell did, Dell computer, now Dell technologies, and retooled. Now you're going to be doing the brand reboot, which we can see behind us. You've done that in three months. Take us through that. Because this is an interesting story. You're now going to bring the brand perspective to Informatica. What's the strategy? What's your plan? And how did you get all this done in three months? Yes, no, it's been an incredible journey. But I was just made this enormous offer as a marketer. You couldn't dream for a better challenge than what we had at Informatica. So when I came in, what I recognized is looking all around and trying to understand our strengths and our weaknesses and what were the opportunities. We have everything in place. So as I mentioned in my keynote yesterday, our brand is having to catch up with the business. So the business is there. We've got great products, the leadership that we hold with all of the Gartner Magic Quadrants, and a leadership in the six categories that we say that matter. We have a tremendous backing to come out with a new story. And that's exactly what we needed to do. It wasn't just about the logo. In fact, the logo was the last thing that we looked at. It was about what's our strategy? What's our vision, our mission? What's the story we want to tell with our customers? And we were hearing from our customers as well that they wanted us to change because they're going through transformation. So that was kind of the backdrop for how we got started on this. And so we went right off the bat trying to nail down our messaging and reviewing that with customers and partners. I mean, our new partner community. It's a big part of this. So we did our due diligence that led up to this unveiling. So I got to talk. We were always kind of complimentary of you guys. Some critical, we had some critical analysis yesterday in the wrap up session. Minor relative to the big bets. These guys have product shops. They always have had good product shops. And with the private going private, they've done a lot of retool and a lot of change in the past year. And they talk about that. I'm going to see, we had it made on, we're going to have Neil on earlier. But I got to ask you the question is the new exact, what does the brand stand for? Because the products changed. The customers, they have some legacy customers that are growing with them and transforming. What does the brand stand for from your perspective? And what is that story? Well, the brand stands for unleashing the power of data. And I think as you probably heard throughout this conference that our whole stance on this is understanding what the disruptive power of data holds for you as a customer. Because as our customers are transforming, we are also recognizing that we have to transform too. And our customers are moving from on-prem to cloud. They want to use our products on subscription versus perpetual license. So we're going through this massive change right alongside our customers. And so our brand had to support that. And our brand was quite frankly left behind. And so that was the opportunity for us to think differently about what is that story that's in support of what our customers want. That promise that you want to make to customers. Yeah, that's right. So next for you, you're going to take a vacation. I get Friday off. And then you're going to start applying yourself to the challenges of using data within marketing to improve Informatica's performance to customers. Absolutely. Talk about the transformation that you think your function's going to go through as you use Informatica to be a better Informatica. Yeah, that's a great question. In fact, I talked about this also in our keynote yesterday because I was talking about a little bit outside in and then I flipped it and said, let's talk inside out. And I was explaining how my job is to deliver the best customer experience to our customers and our partners. And in order to do that, I need to have those unique insights that I gather from all the data that I'm collecting on our customers and our partners to make sure that they're getting the right information at the right time to make those right decisions. And so I'm using our own internal intelligent data lake to create what we call our marketing data lake. And that gives me, first of all, it gives me the whole perspective of the customer and what they're doing and where they're coming from so that then I can turn that around and make that a unique experience for our customers. And so I shared that because I wanted our customers to understand that I'm going through the same thing that they're going through. In fact, if you've seen some of the quotes that are hanging around here in Informatica World, Jewelry TV, AWS, they're all talking about delivering the best customer experience for their customers. So I feel like I'm going through this just as well as our customers are. So what's the marketing perspective? Cause now you have to sell the customers you're listening. So digital is going to be a big part of, we're in a digital transformation. So we're here at a physical event we're broadcasting digitally live and all these assets are flying around. There's a lot of data out there. How are you harnessing that data? What's your vision on how are you going to bring Informatica into that digital role for listening to customers, engaging with them and creating a touch point digitally? So digital is a big part of what I'm responsible for and we oftentimes talk about what's the digital journey our customers go on and that gets back to, I'm needing to understand where they're coming from, what device are they coming to me from, what kind of information do they want back from me to help them make the right decisions for their company and quite frankly bring ideas back to their C-suite. So that's all right in my wheelhouse and that's actually what I'll be turning my attention to post-Informatica world is really getting deep under and having a better understanding as to what that buyer's journey looks like and it's all digital. I mean these days everything we do in marketing starts with digital. In some cases the moment of truth to the beginning of a journey is all digital. Yeah, that's right. Analog is kind of self-service if you will. Well, except for those customers except for those customers that you currently have who you're trying to expand and develop and help them as well, obviously. But this is one of the things that I find especially interesting about marketing I want to test you on this is that in many respects marketing has been underappreciated because the output of marketing has been very information oriented and the value of the information that the marketing has generated while we're not starting to recognize how unbelievably valuable it is, historically it's been underappreciated. That's right, that's right. So how are you bringing the story, marrying the ability to tool things but also to better define, so you know, what's the value of a brand? That's right. It's goodwill on the balance. Yeah, yeah, well that's a great question. This is a testament to the belief that our board and our executive team has around the power of a brand. This is why they're investing. They realize that they've invested and done and delivered in every facet across Informatica in the last place that they needed to invest in is in marketing because they realize the power of the brand and that story. And look, everybody's talking about us. I mean, if you've talked to any of our customers here at Informatica World, they're like, this is unexpected. We haven't seen this from Informatica. They've been hungry for this from Informatica. And so we're really putting our money where our mouth is on the brand this year. So you'll see it all come together. And I have to say as a marketer, I mean, there's nothing more special than the company realizing that they need to get behind the brand. You got a great mandate. I mean, you got a good product behind you. I think that's going to be impressive. Question I want to ask you is twofold. One is with the rebranding experience that you mentioned, you went through digital transformation. A lot of your customers are going through the same thing. What experiences did you learn from that? And you can share some insight, whether it's personal or business anecdotally or specifically quantitatively, what you learn from the rebranding experience. And then the second part of the question is the brand building process. How do you envision that roadmap? Well, so it's interesting. So I actually brought a best practice in order to get this done in three months. Honestly, this is normally like a nine month process. I use this rubric where we start with understanding what's overall vision and mission and what's the market opportunity. So enterprise cloud data management, we're the leaders in that. We've never said that. And so understanding each of the bits and pieces that make up the entire story before you get to the brand identity, that's actually a best practice that we've employed now here in Informatica. And that was something that was foreign just because they hadn't taken the time to focus on that. So that was not necessarily learning a best practice, but deploying a best practice here at Informatica. And now we need to turn back inside and change the culture. So we just rolled this out with the Informatica employee base last week and they're all excited. And I said, okay, well, we'll tune in once we get past Informatica world. So now the employees are excited to understand how can they help tell the message, get the story out there? How can we change the culture so they understand who we are? We've had many messages in the marketplace, so there's a little bit of confusion. And now we have one story. And now we need to have our employees are our best salespeople. So we need to engage them and arm them with the story. I can just see people watching this video. Give me the rubric. Where do I find that rubric? It's posted. It's on our internet. Absolutely. So it's on the public blog? It's on our internet inside. Oh, internet. Okay, so it's not for the general public. Okay. I'm sure they're dying to find out the secret rubric. But it's a guide to help them. Because everyone says, oh, what's your new logo? And I'm like, we have a lot to do before we talk about colors and all of that. And so we wanted to make sure our employees understood the messaging and what was behind that so that when we got to the logo, they could understand how everything was unfolding. So what's going to iterate? So, you know, we see this on digital transfers where it's deploying cloud, you get some structure, a rubric, like it has a guidepost to kind of get the hard work done foundationally. But then iterating and being agile with the brand. Do you have a philosophy on what points of the brand you're going to be iterating on? And what are the key areas that you see some evolution on the brand side? Yeah. Well, it's definitely that reiteration of our leadership stance that we have in the marketplace. You know, we've been humble and there's nothing wrong with humble, but we also can be proud and we can be proud to be proud. So you'll be seeing a lot more from us around our leadership that we have in the marketplace and we're going to be taking that on the road. So what you see here this week in Informatica World, then we roll them out all around the rest of the world through our Informatica World tours. So we'll package up the story, we'll package up the look and feel and we'll take that out so that our customers around the world can experience what we're experiencing. Take us through, I would love to ask this question for new folks and it does with Jeremy Burton when he joined EMC. Now he's CMO of the Dell Technologies. Because you're new, you see everything fresh with the fresh eyes and of course, you got to come in a little skeptical, wait a minute, is this going to be a good opportunity? So when you were assessing the jewels, if you will, inside Informatica, what are some of the things that jumped out that you could share? I mean, what's the coolest thing you saw? What motivated you? What was the tipping point? Was there a moment where you go, okay, go to the next level? Was it just a sustain? Or was there one? No, there were a couple of things. I mean, first and foremost, our leadership. I mean, you guys, there's no other company. I'm sure that you can validate this. There's no other company who has leadership in six, and not just in leader quadrant, but the leader in the leadership quadrant in six categories. That's unheard of. And it's something that we need to be proud of. We don't ever talk about that. So that was the first thing I thought, okay, we'll check that box. That's really good. Second thing is this interest in investment in the brand. And I thought, okay, I've heard that before. Let's see if we're serious about it. Test that. Yeah, and I've tested it. I've proven it. We've delivered it, and everybody's proud. And so I think those two things combined, our leadership and the fact that we actually can get behind the story, and we have one story, that's the momentum we've needed. So that's just validation. Well, Jerry Hell, who's a board member, was on yesterday. He was very proud of the work he'd done. And he's excited. So he's pumped up. You've got one board member on your side. We can see what Bruce thinks this afternoon. Board members, we've got our channel partners. I mean, the channel for us is our mouthpiece. And we needed to provide them the story too. So the channel's engaged and more excited than ever. Our sales teams are engaged. I mean, they've needed the story. So it was just guide rails that we needed to bring to the company, and I think this just solidifies that. The wind at your back, certainly we heard from the channel, sales are up, certainly the product's doing good, looking over a billion dollars in revenue. Great pre-IPO, I mean, it's pretty obvious. It's pre-IPO out there. Amidst that, it's not okay. We're going to evaluate that, but we think it's pretty hot right now. Is it the hottest? I think so. But what are you worried about? Because with all that pressure, you're being aggressive on the marketing side. You got to be, you got the wind at your back. What are you worried about? Have anything to do? It all comes down to execution, right? So we've done the heavy lifting to get us here. But as I've said to executive staff and the board, this is our starting line. It's not our finish line. And so the rest of this year, and of course going into 2018, it's all about execution. So, and I feel really good about that because you can't execute without a great strategy and we have a great strategy and we have a great story to tell. And a great management team. I mentioned it earlier, and John and I talked about it last night and the wrap-up. Informatica has a track record of making promises, big promises, and at least recently, keeping them. That's right. So you are, you have a track record of executing. Customers are able to bank in you. So going back to the kind of why this might be a great opportunity is, from our perspective, you got good products, you got good management, you got a good customer base, got a good financial position. Marketing can make a big difference. That's right. Now we have a good story and we have a great brand and we've got investment. So we'll be out there. I mean, this is our year. I hope you all see this is our year. We'll be watching. You got a lot of air cover coming in for the folks to try more business and customer satisfaction. Yeah. What are we going to be talking about next year? Wait and see. Wait and see. There's more in store for sure. It's probably your first hundred days. What's your, hold on. I re-branded the company. I won't leave it at that. Sally Jenkins, executive vice president, chief marketing officer, changing the brand, building the brand for Informatica. When did it back? Congratulations. Great to have you on theCUBE. Thanks for supporting theCUBE. Thank you. Bringing theCUBE exclusive coverage here from Informatica. Well, I'm John Furrier with Peter Barris. Stay with us more after this short break.