 Hello everyone, and welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of UiPath Forward 6. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, Lisa Martin. We have two guests, this is an all women panel, so this is an exciting panel. We have Carrie Ten-Bressel, she is the Senior Vice President and GM, Head of Business Technology Platform NA at SAP, welcome. And Jen McDonald, North America Vice President at UiPath, welcome. Thank you. So, we're here to talk about, they called this segment, Attacking the Automation Market, which I really like, and I want to talk about the partnership and how you came together. I'm going to start with you, Jen. You have sort of an interesting background. I do. Actually, I'm thrilled to be here and thrilled to talk about it, because prior to the last three years at UiPath, I was with SAP for eight years. So actually working there and representing some of our clients, meeting people in the field every day, we heard about automation, more and more and more. And then when UiPath called, I said I actually have to consider what is this about? What are we really talking about? Because I'm hearing about it for my customers. So came over for the opportunity and it ended up being the best decision because I'm back with my old team and my old family. Rob came over quickly thereafter and now working with Carrie, who I've known for years, super exciting. Yeah. So what is the genesis of this partnership? Tell us more about it, Carrie. Sure, sure. So as well, thank you for having us today. We're excited to talk about these things. You know, SAP, right? We are the foundation of intelligent enterprise for our customers. And as a result of that, our customers expect the very best from us. And one of the ways that we know that we can truly extend our solutions is through the power of partnerships. Years ago, I mean, SAP has been in business for over 50 years. We know what we're good at. We know what we need to rely on our ecosystem to be even better at. And the partnership really came from our customers. Customers saying, look, in today's macroeconomic environment with all of the challenges, it's absolutely critical that we can extend to our customers the opportunity to run faster, run better, run smarter. And in order for SAP to be able to truly to extend that to the customer community, we need to leverage our partners. So how it came to be was really customers kind of saying, can't you all come together? You know, UiPath is in very many of the same environments that we are in at the same time. We're speaking the same language. And we at SAP know that there are, there is tremendous power to partnerships like this one with UiPath. Jen, can you shed some light based on your background on the cultural alignment between UiPath and SAP? Because I'm, I understand the customer obsession, I'm sure it's on both sides, but talk about that cultural fit and how it's been really kind of an accelerant. That's a great question actually. No one's asked that. It is in the DNA of both companies. We're very much the same actually. A lot of the people that were at UiPath either were here at the beginning or I say we're SAP or Salesforce, frankly. I'd say we're a lot like SAP. And when I've hired, I actually commend the culture from SAP because I loved working there. And I say it is a lot like that here. So I think those synergies are absolutely why this partnership is going to be so successful. The way we go to market is also the same. The DNA, a lot of our sellers have are the same. And it's kind of like a family still. Yeah, love it. It is. What I would add to that as well is, you know, any good partnership needs trust and transparency. And one thing that we know with any of our key partners like UiPath is to be able to build that trust and transparency. It helps us to get to market faster. It helps us to solve some of the challenges that we know are out there and to talk very, very straight. And this partnership has really been at a rapid pace. And I'm sure we'll talk about the way in which the relationship exists today. But it's just moving very, very quickly. And that really is a testament to the relationships that we already have. And that cultural alignment to be able to enable that. Yeah. And to meet that customer demand that you were saying was overwhelming on the SAP side. For sure. For sure. A partnership maybe on the SAP side that this is modeled after? You know, any one of our key solution areas today, you know, the Google Cloud Partner, Google Cloud Platform is certainly a pillar, key pillar that we've had a tremendous amount of traction with. And it's very, very similar. You know, we do have the cultural fit. But more than anything, we have to have a technology fit. Right? So that's absolutely everything. And that's therein lies the beauty of the solution set. The ability to extend what we offer at SAP to drive that agility and speed that I talked about a moment ago. That's where the UiPath and the SAP environments really, really click. And that's where the speed comes into place. So what are the objectives? What are you setting out to accomplish? I'll start with you, Jen. I think it's the same what UiPath has always been doing and accelerating human achievement and truly changing the way the world works. I mean, the impact is tremendous. I think about it from developing the workforce of the future and obviously just cost takeout and cost avoidance. It's a tough economy. And doing it with the best business process application technology in the world, the best companies run SAP. And back to the synergies, we've seen that. The joint customers we have in high tech and oil and gas and retail, we're talking to the same people solving very similar problems. When I really think about it, it's also if you're really going to digitize, you're really going to, right? Everyone's moving to S for HANA and digitizing, you have to have automation at the core to keep the core clean and to really build it with humans and machines working side by side. That's the future. Jen, with automation at the core, and this is a question as well for you, Carrie, where are those customer conversations originating? Is it the IT side? Is it the business side? Is it both? I think I'll jump in on that one. Yeah, it's really, it's on the business side. It's really the business users that are coming forward to say, how do we get started? Where do we start? What is the value we should expect? And you know, as Rob Enslin mentioned earlier today in his keynote address, the customers are really starting at the top, right? The CEOs of companies are really top down saying, we have to change. We have to move at a rapid pace. And I think it's critical today, we're talking about that here at Forward All Week, which is how do we balance between leveraging the artificial intelligence capabilities and still protecting the heart and mind of the human, right? And so as we look to that, I think it's about that process improvement and truly skinning down, skinning down, the business process layer, right? But it's definitely coming from the top down and from the business users outside in. I was really fascinated by that point and obviously the research shows that too. Survey after survey shows that it is business leader CEO types who are really obsessed with AI and bullish about it, the rank and file, less so for a lot of different reasons. Some legitimate, some sort of maybe based out of fear. But I'm curious, how do we bridge that? Because we can't just have the CEO running. There has to be buy-in. There has to be, the workers themselves have to see the future and understand the vision, not just, oh, the CEO wants it because they see a way to cut headcount. And I'll say that you're asking the question that everyone's asking, how do we do this? Quickly goes to what is it that you do? What is it we're doing? Why should I do this? And then very quickly, how would I do this? I think that's, I had that conversation 10 times today and I'm having 15 more tomorrow. I'm sorry. That's what every customer wants to do. And so the devil's in the details, it's a bigger answer, but it is about proper business alignment and the business objectives. And I don't think from at least an automation standpoint you should look at it like the goal is to automate. The goal is not to automate. The goal is what are you trying to do as an organization? Right, free up cash flow, whatever it might be, digitize. Whatever that may be and how does automation help you do that faster with more agility and all the things Rob and team said today on stage. But that is the big question, how? And I think that is a series of workshops and partnerships with our friends at SAP, all of us getting together in the room with our partners as well, the GSIs. We're figuring that out together. But it sounds like customers are at the forefront of helping you dissect that and orchestrate it. Oh, for sure, for sure. And it's not going to look the same for any one customer, right? And the choices that customers have today around innovation and acceleration and even between SAP and UiPAP, each one of those conversations is going to look very, very different. And some of these answers are only going to be resolved and addressed by working together with the customer. I think on the automation side relative to the human capacity and where to start, I think it's no different than if you look as a consumer in the power of the efficiency of using, let's say, using an app, an airline app, to make a flight reservation, to make a flight change, right? That helps you to run faster, run better. I think that's where the, from the ground up, that's where those business users will see process improvement. Every day tasks that they utilize, things that are repetitive, it's a great place to start. And it's part of the efficiency that I think every business looks for, regardless of the AI conversation, they're always looking to make those improvements. And are you able to take learnings from one industry and apply them easily? We're focused on that right now. We actually changed our entire go-to-market February one. So personally, I lead a high-tech, telco, retail, some of my peers, others. And we're trying to figure that out right now. Healthcare's done it really well. Financial Services has done it really well here at UiPAP. I think some of the best industry practices I've ever seen worldwide, period, SAP developed. So back to this partnership and those synergies, culturally, technology, and everything in between, I think that's exactly where we're gonna learn from each other, because our clients are definitely asking for the playbook. If I'm a software provider, if I'm a retailer, how do I do this, right? Like truly back to the how and what is repeatable. I think we're just starting to figure that out for some of these other adjacent industries. But yeah, I think we can all learn from each other. And then there's finance is finance. HR is HR. There's a lot of back office that it wouldn't matter what industry you're in. That's why we have over 10,000 customers. Those pieces have somewhat been figured out. I think what I would add to that is, as we look at, so the point of entry for UiPAP at SAP is the business technology platform. So the business technology platform, or known as BTP, is really, it goes across the entire intelligent enterprise, regardless of your industry. And that's really focused on analytics, data, your application innovation, and application extension. That doesn't really have much of a concern for what industry you're in, and that really fundamentally goes across every organization. So we're looking at it top down and across the organization as well. What is the vision for the next six to 12 months from both of SAP's perspective and UiPAP's perspective? Well, I will tell you. We'll hold on to your business together. Yeah, I was just going to tell you. I said to someone today that normally, you start small, and you identify key customer areas that you can work on, some high value industries, get some wins, figure out how to work together, figure out what good looks like. Because we have to empower the SAP community as well to be able to speak the UiPAP language and UiPAP to speak SAP. Not everyone has the connection that Jen and I have, certainly, but we have to empower and enable our folks and our sales teams. This, however, has kind of happened the other way around. So it's really gotten very large, very fast, but very powerful, very exciting, but now we have some work to do to really make good on all of the key announcements that we've made. And there's a tremendous amount of effort going on behind the scenes and certainly with our customers already. Yeah. I do think the next six months or so will determine the vision. Because to Carrie's point, we're figuring it out right now. Real time with the clients, like you mentioned. So I do think it'll be really fascinating, but we are moving so fast. I mean, truly, it's amazing. And I would say the market's response, our customer, our joint customer's response are like, please tell us. Like, how do we do this? Figure it out, please. We'll do it with you. So it's going to be fascinating. But we're seeing the traction is pretty fantastic. It is. And I think one of the other key areas for especially SAP customers, we're all speaking the same language. Key. Right? So we know even inside of SAP, you can leverage SAP Signavio for business process automation and customers are already saying, well, where would I utilize SAP Signavio? Where would I utilize SAP Build? And then how does UiPath play in that same arena? Again, the formula for that combination will be different for every customer. But certainly with UiPath's help, this is where we bring together the best of both worlds to identify and maximize the impact that we can have in every situation. That's right. As Rob and Lloyd were on stage this morning and then they came to theCUBE. What's been some of the feedback? Because obviously we talked about the customer demand that really directed and catalyzed this relationship. But what's been some of the feedback on the street today that you guys have heard? I think that. Figure it out. You guys are ready to learn from us. Yes, that's right. You can talk to us. What's SAP's perspective on this? When are you doing more? What are you doing? I mean, just a lot of questions would be the feedback overall that I would say and a lot of excitement. Yes, a lot of excitement, of course. I think anytime you bring together in SAP, we've made other historic relationship announcements and we've executed tremendously and no doubt we're going to do that here as well. But it is an interesting time in the world is definitely watching on these incredibly important topics. So I think that this is all great but I think very quickly it will turn into a show me, right? Show me what is behind all of the conversations in the bright lights and the big stages. And I think we're on the cusp of that very, very quickly. Because everyone's like great AI and great you guys are doing together. Yeah, show me. Yeah. Prove it. Yeah, prove it. Yes. Good note to end on. Carrie, Jen, thank you so much for coming on theCUBE. You're a really interesting conversation. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Rebecca Knight for Lisa Martin. Stay tuned for more of theCUBE's live coverage of Forward 6.