 Live from Las Vegas, Nevada, it's theCUBE. Covering Knowledge 15, brought to you by ServiceNow. Okay, welcome back everyone. You're watching theCUBE live in Las Vegas. This is theCUBE, so look at Angoluki Bond's flagship program. We go out to the events and expect a save for noise. I'm John Furrier with my co-host Dave Vellante. Our next guest is CUBE alum, Link Elander, Vice Chancellor, College Services, Lone Star College. Welcome back. Good to see you here at ServiceNow. I mean, we've been EMC world, VM world. What's new? What's up with you? What's happening? Oh, there's so much going on, especially in the educational space. So let me step into Lone Star a little bit first, because when we first talked, I think we were talking about 85,000 students. Now we're supporting over 100,000 students. We're the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area. Fastest growing in the United States, but I got to put it in perspective. In the last three years, we've added 33,000 students, and we're on for a double digit growth again. So that type of growth presents a lot of challenges, whether it's in the IT or the instructional space or facilities as you look at it. So it's been exciting. It hasn't changed any over that period of time. That's a wave of new inbound capabilities. So how did you handle that? Give us some working examples of what you went through, emotionally, tactically, with technology. I mean, there's a lot of work coming in, right? Well, there's a lot of challenges to it. I mean, you can look at it from the IT perspective in the capacity management or the facilities and their capability or the ability to bring on qualified instructors through that process. So the challenges have been continuous, but the reality is we've been in this pattern for so long that we've adapted very well. We're very agile about what we do. The interesting challenge though is this last August, we have a new chancellor on board. So we had a completely different vision to an extent, but it really isn't now. Our new chancellor came in from inside, was a president, and he basically did a mission realignment. So we pride ourselves in the fact that we want to be a college of choice, that we want to be there for the first time in college student. But now we've actually strengthened our mission around workforce and workforce training programs. In fact, actually I'm really excited because we are now actually becoming an educational partner for ServiceNow, and we're going to be putting students through a training program, but we've also woven it into our converged infrastructure programs. So they're learning IT service management, vital foundations, and that's embedded in that training program. So it's like an integrated track for them in this new specialized way. We're adding a little ServiceNow component into that bigger picture. What we're doing in that program, we're giving them an opportunity, is that they learn the fundamentals, but then they get certifications along the sides. So they can actually, in the converged program, get a certification in EMC and to virtualization. That's interesting. I mean, you're helping build the product as a CIO. It's building what I need in my pipeline. I mean, I can't find highly qualified entry-level students that know these items and really around the IT service management side. So this new vision and this new workforce part has been phenomenal, and it's going to propel our growth really well. So let's talk about the role of the CIO. It's something that I know you're passionate about that. Some people have said the role of CIO is going away. Some people say it's transforming. The chief digital officer, chief data officer, the COO, on and on and on. Let's talk about the evolving role of the CIO. What's changed in the last 10 years and what's going to change? All right, so let's put this in perspective. Five, 10 years ago, would you have looked to IT to help deliver services? Would you have came to them and said, how can we improve our service delivery? No. Yeah, there's not a chance. The business has been really good on the outside edge of the customers or a B2B strategy, but internally, we're no good to each other. Internally between whether you're talking in HR, you're talking in finance, our ability to deliver services inside the organization hindered the organization. So now we're in a totally different role. The CIO has to be a business partner and now we're being looked at is how do we expand service delivery? Look at what IT did. Over this period of time now, they've become a service provider that's trusted. I mean, part of my mission statement in our organization is customer to light. And people first look at it, what do you mean customer to light? It's customer to light. We have to be aligned with the business. We have to look at how do we support the organization and how do we become a valued partner? And part of that is delight. You're happy with what you get from us. Just like when they were talking about Uber earlier, why do you use Uber instead of a taxi? Well, you get delight. You get what you need and you get an instant gratification. You got it. And that's what the world's about today, isn't it? And you pay more for that instant gratification. Sometimes you even pay less. True. You bring a cost to it. You bring a cost. So delight is the outcome. That's the value. That's the renewal. That's the happiness. That's the checkbox. And under the covers is the cost to do that. So talk about the efficiency piece of this because that seems to be what ServiceNow is saying and their messaging is, oh yeah, we automate a bunch of work processes that I call mundane. That's not their word. They've actually used that word, but say mundane tasks. Whether it's... Non-value producing, for sure. Well, they're in the machinery workflow, but you just get rid of human involvement. Just an easy task. So what's the efficiency angle? What have you seen and how did you... Well, let's start with the first part. So I like the idea of get rid of email. And I get too many requests in all the time that come in via email. And I'm like, wait a minute, okay? Or I lose it. It gets lost in the shuffle. Whereas when you're using a service management platform, it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. It stays in the queue until you close it out or you pass it on to somebody else. So changing that workflow around requests and the types of services you provide is efficient. You're getting your work done faster. You're not dropping the ball here and there. It's better than a task list or sheet of paper, the posted note by far. So that's an important part of that. The efficiencies though become, and especially in IT, as you transform to an organization, it is running a private cloud that's using public cloud services and integrating there. You're looking at that IT infrastructure, that running water, and nobody cares about the running water. They just want to know that I know what I'm doing and I have the right team to keep the water running. Now where's that next little piece? And that next little piece is around, how do I provide that level of service that is aligned with the business? And then they want to get to the very top of that pyramid. They want to get down to innovation. What can we do that can help the organization to be innovative? And you think higher education, how can you be innovative in higher education? There's thousands of ways, and faculty have amazing ideas. So you need to be able to look at what they want to apply in technology in the classroom and how do you deliver that new service and how do you engage with them? As you look at service management fundamentals, you're taking care of that base level, that core operational need, and then you're constantly just expanding and growing. So I want to pick up on that theme of alignment. You were talking about email and what a pain it is, and you gave an example of having a service management system where you can have all those requests documented and acted upon. But there's a nuance here. You could do a lot of that with a ticketing system, but it's not a whole house solution. It's a bespoke solution. So can you talk about the relationship between a holistic service management approach? Maybe it's a single CMDB. Maybe it's not. I'd be interested if you're taking that approach. And just sort of bespoke tools like a ticketing system. Well, we do use it as a single CMDB. So that is one critical part. The other part of what it is is that, so I actually in our user group talked about that this is basically the onion wrapper outside. And it wraps around that ERP core service where you have all these core services that you don't get out of your ERP. And that you don't want to build or customize in that ERP. We're anti-customization in my organization so that we can be adjunct. I remember you telling us that, but oh yeah. So now I look at this platform as a platform that allows me to do more automation, to improve processes without causing damage in the ERP and being a single source of record. So this is the sole source of truth. So, I don't see, about four years ago, we actually did student financial aid as a service inside of ServiceNow, before they were even thinking outside of ServiceNow. We knew that the students needed to get quality responses. We needed to track what was happening. And so we just applied IT principles and built out an instance that supported financial aid. So people that say, how would you say to people that say, and we've had people do, we've been at conferences, people say that CIO role's going away. CIO's going to have to make a choice to have to become the Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer, the COO, or the CTO. Make a choice. You forgot the Chief Innovation Officer. Oh, I forgot that. You forgot that one. So if I'm inferring what you're saying, you're saying, no, no, the CIO role's going to transform to a service management guru or enabler, a business person, essentially. But can you elaborate on that? Well, for one, you're going to see that. They're going to have to be a business person. They're going to have to be in that alignment. So as we talk about changing role, I find it interesting, we started about it earlier. I think in 2010, you announced me as the CIO of LoneStar and I was at that time the CTO. So I find that to be a chuckle. And I thought that'd be a good lead into this one because my role did change already. When this new chancellor came on, we had a lot of discussions around the service delivery and the team and the fundamentals. And my role changed significantly in the fact that now I'm actually not just over IT, so I am the CIO. But I also oversee analytics, institutional reporting. And when you think about that, that's kind of a big data thing. That's correct. And we're doing predictive analytics and we're modeling in that direction. But it's also about items like, how do I align the analytics to student success? How do I provide faculty with the information that they're looking for and feed it through? So it's a totally different than just data. So this brings up the whole point that Fred was bringing up, which is as you connect devices and the data, it brings up new capabilities. So what your story is progressing and showing is, Vice Chancellor is a holistic view now that includes not just IT, but the business model of the institution. Well, I didn't get to the last one I also took on. So I also am over human resources now. Really? Yeah, have you heard that one before? No. That's the new one. Logistics coming next. Facilities? No, no, no, no, please. CFO? No. Get the CFO job, then you can approve all your... Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think she'd like that either. There's certain things I don't even have a desirable. But no, but in reality... That's the big problem though, this is business model impact, right? Well, it is. And it comes down to it. How do you get people in the pipeline correctly? And I'm really excited. I've spent a lot of time here. I've got some HR staff here. We're rolling out the HR service delivery model in ServiceNow. And I've got some HR staff here. ServiceNow is great. When I came in early, we had a chance to sit down with a bunch of CHROs and talk and understand the challenges. We looked at the onboarding application and said, wow, this is what we need. We need to make employees welcome when they come in. So it really is, if you think about it, IT is in everything. You are the instantiation of that transformation. I mean, you think about it, when we were talking before, we were talking about, you know, server virtualization, you know, storage. Backup and recovery. Now we're talking about completionist transformation. But they're all just as important. I mean, underneath a hood, that has got to be there. It's an engine of innovation. Yeah. You have to match your services with your target audience, deliver that value, get paid for it. Again, that's the outcome and have happy customers. Correct. So that's an IT function, basically, I mean. We're so embedded in everything. So, you know, you talk to the internet of things. Well, you just think about it. IT permeates the institution. So, the key to that, and one thing we didn't really get into is that transformation is also, it's not just the CIO transforming. You have to transform the IT staff. And what that really means is, you know, I've got some phenomenal individuals. We're 100% centralized in our organization, which is odd for higher ed. But the reality is, is that we really have focused on a lot of soft skills, on leadership skills, on training, so that the IT staff has that same mindset. And when we talk about goals and objectives, they understand that we are not the mission of the college. We are there to support the mission. And to do that, we need to understand what the business drivers are. Do you feel you've been, do you feel that you guys are agile? I mean, that's a term that's been kicked around. That's a goal that people have in their transformation. Or is that over? We are extremely agile. I mean, we have the ability to work closely with our partners, our business partners. We can deploy services quickly, and that comes down to when we went into the private cloud and we looked at how do we become highly available and provide those core services. At the same time is we adopted project management methodologies that are unique. I have a phenomenal portfolio, by the way, kept in service now, and given their plug there, because I love the product. I mean, every morning when I walk in, at seven o'clock, two monitors go on, and I see exactly what's going on my service delivery side, and I see what's going on my portfolio side. I can see if projects are hanging. But that project portfolio is reshuffled and reviewed and adjusted every four months. I don't believe in projects that go over six months. Sometimes I'll have a phase two for a year, but that's it. We won't push that because things change too fast. There's other opportunities that may come up, and we're not just being so agile that we have no plan. I have a very clear plan, but the plan really comes down to is what are the business needs, how do the partners look at it, and how do we move it forward from there? We had Rob Pickering on yesterday, CIO, and he said his number one value purpose service now when he went to the C-suite was for the first time he could show executives this is what IT looks like, and actually give a picture to your dashboard question. So, and he now take it to a whole other level. So, in a sense, that's your comfort blanket of service now gives you that capability. Well, the key to that is transparency. So, IT needs to be transparent. Everybody says, oh, IT spends too high. This is going on. We need to control, we need to be a better value partner, but if you're not transparent and they can't see that, then the questions do arise. We have large budgets. We have huge operational expenses, and we can quantify those by looking at the analytics. Well, it's so true, because if you look at technology, technology, we're always doing more with less, our budgets don't go up, maybe you do because you're growing, but what other department does more with less, but the problem has been, I don't know what's in there. It's like, just get this big IT tax, every month on my P&L. But, you know, when you look at the budget, there's no more money left over. It's not like we're having big parties here. We're not throwing big marketing at it. We're picking up all the pieces and trying to make it work. So, that transparency is key. Now, so did you start with ITSM, and then part of that was project, you moved into project, and HR, is facilities next? Maybe talk about that journey. Okay, so the journey, as I see it right now, we actually started in ITSM in 2009 with ServiceNow. So, we've been there for a long time, and we are constantly looking at new ways to improve services and turn on other modules, I guess the better way to put it, as we move forward. When project came out the first time, it wasn't ready for prime time, so we stayed on our project servers, and I had disparate project information, so I didn't have that transparency. When the next generation was released, it was like, this is exactly what we needed. You know, we, across the organization, adopt one platform, one view, gave me that capability. So true portfolio view. Absolutely. Interconnected, aligned with the other processes. I can sit down with any of my business units and show them a CIO roadmap that's related to their area, and to the institution as a whole. So they're able to see what I have on the roadmap and where things are going. Right now, we've rolled asset in, we're rolling the finances in. I've been very good about the finances always. It always comes down to, can I be transparent about the dollars? But now I have a dashboard view versus a bunch of spreadsheets, and we're moving that part in. HR, when, HR was discussed a couple different times as a way to improve that service delivery. Like I said, we've done quite a few other things. Analytics, before they reported to me, went into request management, started doing that. Financial aid, we'd done that as a service before that. We just applied the ITSM principles to that. Now we're looking at, from the HR perspective, a true case management solution that will help us walk through everything and then follow back through. Or we get a call, we can see what's going on exactly. It's something we don't have that visibility. Facilities is an interesting one. We're going to, after we roll out HR, we're going to meet with the facilities group and talk to them and say, what do you think here? Because as we talk about the automation, the internet of things, you're talking about all of these controls. You talk about Nest in the house. We've seen Johnson Controls and what it does in large building spaces. It's pretty impressive stuff. So how can you feed that kind of data in there and provide that same service request platform? So we'll look into those directions. There's quite a few different areas. We feel that ServiceNow's platform will take care of those items we don't have that aren't available to us. And how about developing apps? Are you guys aggressively doing that or is it in service now or not necessarily? Not necessarily. We'll do the standard service request. Like I said, I'm an anti-customization guy. Yeah, so you're looking for cuts. You know, I'm looking for efficiencies. We roll out the newest releases very quickly every time. We stay on track. Now that's a little bit different in this apps development because it's not as complicated. We are going to look in the store. I'm excited about what I've seen already and just the quick peeks at the store and see what's there. We hit with the training program. We're going to have app developers being trained in our organization now. So that might open some opportunities also. But you want to buy and not build necessarily. Right now that's just right. We're an IT support organization. We're not a software developer. So the question I want to ask you to end the segment here. I know you've got to run. Thanks for your time by the way. You're a great visionary and also a great executive leading the charge. You're showing really where IT from an executive standpoint managing that now. It's permissible across the organization. So congratulations to your success. Share with the folks out there, service now, how does that change your job, your company and what advice would you give them if someone's kicking the tires for service now? So their developer community is exploding and getting some great foundational growth and company success has been pretty significant. Well, you can't beat rapid deployment and service now. I mean, we basically turned it on and started running. And then you had a bit of build a strategy around how do I take those idle principles and ITSMF and actually make them functional because as you know, they're not exactly functional. When you read the instructions said it's kind of just ideas. So you're able to make them functional very quickly. So that speed of deployment is phenomenal but really the transformation the organization comes down to is that transparency again. My customers can go see exactly what's going on with the service request. They can see when we have a problem that the problem information's out there and that we're queuing everything up and we're working through this. It's they're not left in the dark. I mean, my organization is great about communications. We've had communication strategy for a long time but this is even further because most people don't want to look for that. You're working the problem. You're working the problem. Yeah, they want to be able to see it. So they can go into the portal, there it is, what's going on. They understand better about, especially on the project side now, they see not just the projects but we also align those to our strategy and to the institutionals goals and objectives for strategic planning. So now they can see that I've got this many in the queue that are related to this initiative, this initiative and this initiative. And you know. So service now kills the excuses and says, oh, it's in my spam folder. Emails, they're going to take away email. Yeah, yeah. And you could have done that with the project portfolio management system before but it's in a stove pipe. It's a seven mile. It doesn't connect to a CMDV. It doesn't connect to the, even though they said that did, right? And you could sort of create these sort of scoring things that sort of worked. With the ton of work. I mean, a ton of work. A lot of, you know, heavy less than to do that. Yeah, great. Like appreciate your time coming on the queue. Appreciate, have a good flight home. Appreciate it. Like Al under vice president, vice chancellor, call of services here on the queue. Oh, CIO. CIO. We screw his title up every time they have one. CIO, CTO, we've been there. He runs everything. He's going to be running everything. He's got all the data. He'll be running. He'll be CEO soon. Next time on the queue. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Thanks. We'll be right back after the show break.