 Live from Atlanta, Georgia, it's theCUBE, covering Citrix Synergy Atlanta 2019. Brought to you by Citrix. Welcome back to theCUBE. Lisa Martin with Keith Townsend, continuing theCUBE's two-day coverage of Citrix Synergy 2019. We're very excited to be speaking with one of the Citrix Innovation Award nominees, ZF Group, we've got Walter Shearer, Senior Manager of IT Workplace Foundation. Hi, Walter. Hello. And Greg Lehofer, Manager of Client Virtualization. Greg, great to have you on theCUBE. Thank you very much. So first, congratulations to ZF Group for the Innovation Award nomination. We hear there were over 1,000 nominees. Well, thank you. Pretty exciting to get to the top three, one of the top three finalists. So Walter, let's start with you. Tell our audience who ZF is and what you're doing with Citrix. So ZF is a global system provider. We enable next generation of mobility. So for us, it's very important to invest in technology fields, like integrated safety, electricity, like automated driving. That's very important for us. So we see the future, the world will change. So we see it every day. And therefore it's very, very important for us that we push innovation, that we push internet of things and we push the digitalization. That's a must for us. So you guys are supplying a company that supplies systems where I see your passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and industrial technology. Yeah, good. Across Germany or is this across Europe? That's globally, so we have around 40 countries where we have locations. We have well organized globally and therefore it's very important for us to bring the right product for the future for our customer. Wow, so Greg, tell us about the landscape. That's 40 countries. Tell us, how big is the infrastructure to support all of that? Very big, so the transformation of IT, it's very important for us as Walter mentioned before. So yeah, we start to build up a bigger infrastructure and now a virtual infrastructure because in the past we have a lot of hardware in place and so it's all from ZF and now we are able that the external service providers and we have a lot of external service provider in place around the globe so that they can bring their own devices now in ZF and can use virtual desktops. And so yeah, for us, the effort is not so big because the infrastructure is more central at the moment. And so yeah, and we are searching for new ways how we can make that more efficient for us and more easier and manage them. And so yeah, we are looking at cloud infrastructures so at the moment, and yeah, we are working very close together with Citrix and that technology and for us, we are very proud that we are now nominated for the price and yeah. So again, about scale, how many partners worldwide do you have? So number of devices connecting to your infrastructure, how big is your customer base? So we have a lot of customers there. So for our project because of what you mentioned, so we have off-road vehicles, we have products concerning the automotive area so we have in the commercial area, so that's a lot of individual customers that we all have there. So, we have to bring the right outcome. So with Citrix technologies and of course with the partnership with Microsoft, that's very important to us. And so we have to bring the right infrastructure in place, especially in the user centric experience approach that's very important to us. And therefore we have the good partnership with Citrix. So with Citrix, they have a really big and powerful systems in place, products, a portfolio, so that will help us in this journey. Let's talk about that journey, Greg, when you started working with Citrix to virtualize the environment. Talk to us about how you went about that from a mobility perspective and what is that is enabling your business to achieve for your customers. Yeah, for our customers, we have global traffic, we have customers all over the world. They are always on airports and traveling around the world. And so it's very important for us that we are transforming the IT in that way, that the customer is able to work all over the world. Anytime and you wear it with any device, it's very important for the customers and for the new generation X to work with every device. And yeah, there is a big transformation at the moment in place. So yeah, with Citrix, it makes it easier for us that we can provide all customers with every device, a workplace or an application. That application, the customers need or our employees need to work, to collaborate all over the world with other engineers and so on on collaborate topics and on tasks and on projects. And yeah, with that technology, with private cloud and now with public clouds, they are able to work with all kinds of devices everywhere in a secure way. And that is important for us because security is one of the important factors for us because when you are traveling all around the world and connecting from every place, security in our perspective, yeah, it's very important. And so with that technology, it's able. And if you are looking through the flexible platforms, that's very important. The solutions that Citrix have in place today with the cloud system. So that brings us in the situation that we could manage all the platforms that we have in place locally today. And if it connected to the cloud, so therefore we have a common plan so to can administrate and manage all the Citrix environments. So I imagine there's a large range of applications that you're deploying. You guys seem to provide a lot of services. What type of application, data and tasks are happening remote with your users? Like what's the typical transaction that a user will conduct while they're at a Sydney airport? So that's what Gregor said. So that's a very important with the device strategy that the world has with any device anywhere and to each time. So and therefore we could provide a virtual desktop. So that's independent from the device. So we have maybe for collaboration that's a very similar topic. So we have solutions for our third parties, for the contractors, and so it could give them a smart solution with Citrix mobile desktop, with mobile app. So they have the possibility to connect to a ZF in the infrastructure. And so we are very flexible about that. So the only what they need, they need a device, they need a browser, that's it. So that's the solution from Citrix. In terms of the operational efficiencies that you have presumably gained from working with Citrix, sounds like your users, as well as your end user customers are benefiting from the virtualized infrastructure that you've put in place. But talk to us about from an operational perspective, how much more efficient is your organization now? From our perspective, it's more efficient because as I mentioned before, in the past, we have to give all our external service providers as an example, hardware from ZF. And so it's a very big benefit, a lot of doings for our IT, to prepare the desktop to make them secure the hardware and so on. And now we are not longer responsible for that hardware because the external bring their own hardware and we only provide them a VDI on a secure way, a net scale, a gateway in that case. And though they can connect and we only take care about our workplace and they take care of their hardware. And so, yeah, for us, it's more eventually, much better because our effort is not so big and that is very good. And yeah, and so as an example, the workplace from Citrix, the new, it's very, very, very good for our customers because the user's interest is very high because a lot of tools or applications they need as book their time and SAP and read their emails, have a look at the chat, have a look at teams and so on. It's all in one platform, it saves a lot of time. And time, yeah, everybody knows, is very important for us. And yeah, when we can save time, it's perfect for us. Let's dive into that time savings. How long does it take you to onboard a new partner now versus before you had Citrix? Now, in the past, there was a lot of processes and they need, I would say, days. So in the meantime, we have to push a button. So and then I will say this would automatically create an image, a VDI, for example, for the customer. That's it. So and of course, in the background, we have to set the right direction, the right access. What systems they have in use or which is that they have in use and that's it. So it sounds like it takes the business processes longer to onboard a customer. So you have to sign a deal, get involved with a partner. And IT, it sounds like it's moving way faster than the actual business itself. Yeah, that's, as I mentioned, it's a very fast process in the meantime. So we have a portal, you could go there. So that's to request what they need. And then there's automatic behind that. And so we could create automatically this workplace for him. So it used to take days to onboard a partner now with Citrix Workspace. It's hours, minutes to onboard a partner. How much time can you quantify that time savings? I would say if you consider the whole process and need some hours. So because it's not only the Citrix onboarding, the Citrix onboarding goes very fast. So then you have to create the operating system and so on with the imaging. So to bring the applications to their client what they need, I would say that needs hours. So days to hours, so big time savings. And also what you were talking about Greg, it couldn't help but think that now that you don't have to provide all of this hardware to your partners, there's probably a massive cost savings as well that ZF has achieved. Can you talk about that? Absolutely, from a cost perspective, we save a lot of money. And the other benefit is that the external can bring the hardware he will work with. So normally we have one device and the external have to work with that and now he can bring his device. Whatever they choose. Right, right, yeah, right. And yeah, any device and that is very benefit for them because they can work with smartphones, they can work with tablet or they can work with a notebook as they like. And from our perspective, yeah, as you mentioned before, you save a lot of money because it's, yeah, we only have to provide the virtual desktop and yeah, we can provide them in a very quick way and we have workflows for that and yeah, it's great for us. What feedback have they given you now that the process is so much faster for them but also they're able to use whatever device they're already familiar with? I imagine from a customer satisfaction perspective, this new experience that you're enabling has really probably driven up your customer loyalty. So the customer, the customer's happier, more satisfied? The customer is more happier. Of course, so and the important topic for us is the customer is happy, they have a fast solution, he's mobile, so we have the access under control. That's very interesting for us and important. Well, making your customers happy is always a top priority and we hear that you're doing that very well. We want to congratulate ZF on your nomination for the Innovation Award. We know that the voting goes through till tomorrow and the winner will be announced. We wish you the best of luck and thank you both for joining Keith and me on theCUBE this afternoon. Thank you very much. Thank you. For Keith Townsend, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE live from Citrix Synergy 2019. Thanks for watching.