 from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering IBM Think 2018, brought to you by IBM. We're back at IBM Think 2018. My name is Dave Vellante. I'm here with Peter Burris, my co-host. And you're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage, our day two of our wall-to-wall coverage of IBM Think. Madhu Kochara is here, she's the Vice President of Analytics Product Development at IBM, and she's joined by Pat Mechtuka, Chief Data Officer at NetBank. Ladies, welcome to theCUBE. You have to say your last name for me. Patricia Mechtuka-Tuka. You didn't click. I did, Mechtuka-Tuka. Okay, amazing. I wish I could speak that language. Well, welcome. Thank you. Good to see you again. Thank you. So, let's start with IBM Think, new show for you guys. You consolidated six big tent events into one. There's a lot of people, there's too many people that count I've been joking. 30, 40,000 people, we're not quite sure, but how is the event going for you? What are clients telling you? Yeah, no. I mean, to your point, yes, we brought in all three big pillars together. A lot of folks here, from data and analytics perspective, an amazing, amazing event for us. Highlights from yesterday with Arvind Krishna on our research, what's happening, five for five, that was really very inspiring for all of us, looking into the future. And it's not all about technology, it's all about how we are here to help protect the world and change the world. So that, as a geek, as an engineer, that was just so inspiring. And as I was talking to our clients, they walk away with IBM as really a solution provider and helping, so that was really good. I think today's Ginny's keynote was very inspiring as well. From our clients, we got some of our key clients. That bank is here with us. And we've been talking a lot about our future, our strategy. We just announced, Ginny actually announced our new product, IBM Cloud Private for data. Everything around data, you know, where we are really bringing the power of data and analytics all together on a private cloud. So that's a huge announcement for us. And we've been talking a lot with our clients and the strategies resonating. And particularly where I come from in terms of the governance and integration space, this is definitely becoming now the valve factor because it helps stitch the entire solutions together and provide better insights to the data. So, so... From your perspective, you're coming from Johannesburg. So you probably like the fact that there's all IBM in one. So you don't have to come back to three or four conferences every year, but love your perspectives on that. And can you please tell us about Ned Bank in your role as Chief Data Officer? Ned Bank is one of the big five financial banks in South Africa. I've been appointed as a CDO about 18 months ago. So it's a new role in the bank per se. However, we are going through tremendous transformation in the bank and especially our IT ecosystem is being transformed because we need to keep up with what is happening in the IT world. Are you the bank's first Chief Data Officer? Definitely, yes, I'm the first. Okay, so you're a pioneer. I have to ask you then. So where did you start when you took over as a Chief Data Officer? I mean, banking is one of those industries that tends to be more Chief Data Officer oriented, but it's a new role. So where did you start? Well, we are not necessarily new in the data per se. We have had traditional data warehousing functions in the organization with traditional warehousing or data roles in the organization. However, the Chief Data Role was never existent in the bank. In actual fact, the bank appointed two new roles 18 months ago. One of them was the Chief Digital Officer who's my colleague and myself being appointed as the Chief Data Officer. Interesting, okay, I talked to somebody from Northern Trust yesterday and she was the lead data person and she said I had to start with a mission. I had to define the mission first and then we looked at the team and then we evolved into how we contribute to the business, how we improve data quality, who has access, what skills we needed. Does that seem like a logical progression or did you take a similar path? I think every bank will look at it differently or every institution, however, from a net bank perspective, we were given a gift by the regulator in bringing the BCBS 239 compliance into play. So what the bank then did that, how do we leverage not just being compliant but leveraging the data to create competitive advantage and to create new sources of revenue? Okay, let's talk about, and Madhu, we talked about this in New York City, governance, compliance, kind of an evil word to a lot of business people, although your contention was, look, it's a reality. You can actually turn it into a positive. So talk about that a little bit and then we can tie it into net banks' experiences. Yeah, so I firmly believe in, in the past, governance 1.0 was all about compliance and regulations, very critical, but that's how it grew. I believe now it's all about governance 2.0, where it's not just the compliance but how do I drive insights, you know? So data is so, so critical from that perspective and driving insights quicker to your businesses is going to be very important. So as we engage with net bank and other clients as well, they are turning that because they are incumbents, they know their data, they got a lot of data, some of them are sitting in structured, unstructured land and it's really, really important that they quickly able to assess what's in it, classify it, right? And then quickly deliver the results to the businesses which they're looking for. So we are, I believe, in the era of governance 2.0 and compliance and regulations are always going to be with us and we are making actually a lot of improvements in our technology, introducing machine learning, how we can do these things faster and quicker. So one of the first modern pieces of work that Peter and I did was around data classification and that seems to be, I've heard this theme before, it seems to be a component or a benefit of sort of putting governance in place that you can automate data classification and use it to affect policy. But Pat, from your standpoint, how do you approach governance? What are the business benefits beyond we have to do this? Like earlier on, I alluded to, we took the regulation as a gift and say, how do we turn this regulation into benefits for the organization? So in looking at the regulation, we then said, how do we then structure the approach? So we looked at the two prompts. The first was the right to win. The right to win meaning that we are able to utilize the right to compete approach from a regulation perspective to create a platform and a foundation for analytics for our organization. We also created the blueprint for our enterprise data program. And in the blueprint, we also came up with key nine principles of what it means to stay true to our data. I.e., you mentioned classification, you mentioned data quality, you mentioned lineage. Those are the key aspects within our principles. The other key principle we also inculcated was the issue around duplication. How do we ensure that we describe data once, we ingest it once, but we use it multiple times to answer different questions. And as you are aware in analytics, the more you mine the data, the more inquisitive you become. So it is, sorry. It's moving from data to information, information to insights, and eventually insights to foresight. So looking into the future and how you bring it back into data. And also some points that you might have. So the concept is one of the challenges of using the fuel example is that governance of fuel is still governance of a thing. You can apply it here, you can apply it there, you can apply it to both places. Data's different. You were very, very accurate when you said we want to define it once, we want to ingest it once, we want to use it multiple times. That places a very different set of conditions on the types of governance. And in many respects, in the past other types of assets where there is this sense of scarcity, it is a problem. But one of the things that, and this is a question, is the opportunity, you said the regulatory opportunity, is the opportunity because data can be shared, shouldn't we start treating governance really as a way of thinking about how to generate value out of data and not a way of writing down the constraints and how we use it. What do you think about that? You give the people the opportunity to go and explore. So you unleash empowerment, you unleash freedom for them to go and explore. They will not see governance as a stick like I've initially indicated, but they see it as business as usual, so it will come natural. However, it doesn't happen overnight. People need to be mature, organization needs to be matured. Now the first step you have to do is to create those policies, create awareness around the policies, and make sure that the people who are utilizing the data are trained into what are the do's and the don'ts. We are fully aware that cyber security is one of our biggest threats. So you can also not look at how you create security around your data. People knowing that how I use my data, it is an asset of the bank and not an asset of an individual. I know you guys have to go across the street, but I wanted to get this in. You're a global, analytics global elite client. I want to understand what the relationship is. I mean, IBM, YBM, maybe make a few comments about your relationship with the company. I think we as NetBerk were privileged actually to be inculcated into this global elite program of IBM. That has helped me in actually in advancing what we need to do from a data perspective because any time I can pick up a phone to collaborate with the IBM mass, I can pick up a phone whenever I need support, I need guidance. I don't have to struggle alone because they've done it with all the other clients before. So why should I reinvent the wheel? Whereas someone else has done it. So let me tap into that so that I can progress quicker rather than try it first. I know. Madhu, we'll give you the final word on think and your business and your priority. So think is amazing, the opportunity to meet with all our clients and coming from product development, talking about our strategy and getting that validation is just good, you know, sharing open road maps with clients like NetBerk and our other global elites, you know, it gives us an opportunity not just sharing of the road maps but actually a lot of co-creation, right? To take us into the future. So I'm having a blast. I got to go run over and meet a few other clients but thank you for having us over here, it's a pleasure. You're very welcome and thank you so much for coming on and telling your story Pat and it would be always a pleasure to see you. Thank you. All right, got to get in your high horse and go. Thanks for watching everybody. We'll be right back after this short break. You're watching theCUBE live from IBM Think 2018. Right back.