1 00:00:00,218 --> 00:00:04,688 If your organization sees generative AI as a technology challenge, you're not alone. 2 00:00:05,288 --> 00:00:08,588 But in the enterprise, the leading cause of project failure up to 3 00:00:08,588 --> 00:00:12,938 70% of CRM deployments stall, for example, is poor user adoption. 4 00:00:13,478 --> 00:00:16,464 My name is Alexandre Nevski and this is Innovation Tales. 5 00:00:17,604 --> 00:00:20,184 Navigating Change one story at a time. 6 00:00:20,214 --> 00:00:24,414 We share insights from leaders tackling the challenges of today's digital world. 7 00:00:24,684 --> 00:00:28,194 Welcome to Innovation Tales, the podcast exploring the human 8 00:00:28,194 --> 00:00:30,054 side of digital transformation. 9 00:00:30,620 --> 00:00:34,458 GenAI headlines promise game changing features, but real value 10 00:00:34,458 --> 00:00:37,788 still comes down to people on the ground choosing to work differently. 11 00:00:38,388 --> 00:00:41,478 Smart algorithms can't help if users won't adopt them. 12 00:00:41,778 --> 00:00:46,278 Just like many past CRM rollouts that run over budget and fizzled on day two. 13 00:00:47,088 --> 00:00:48,858 Those flops weren't about bad software. 14 00:00:49,188 --> 00:00:53,298 There were about gaps between strategy, process and personal motivation. 15 00:00:53,868 --> 00:00:56,478 Today's episode tackles that gap head on. 16 00:00:57,288 --> 00:01:01,728 My guest, Ryan Pollak, is a seasoned sales professional with a rich background 17 00:01:01,758 --> 00:01:03,378 in the Microsoft Dynamics space. 18 00:01:04,038 --> 00:01:07,488 He's passionate about the future of AI, the cloud, and 19 00:01:07,488 --> 00:01:09,198 upgrading from legacy systems. 20 00:01:09,948 --> 00:01:13,848 His hard won lessons will help you focus on what truly matters 21 00:01:14,028 --> 00:01:15,558 and win executive backing. 22 00:01:16,068 --> 00:01:19,158 Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ryan Pollak. 23 00:01:19,832 --> 00:01:21,092 Ryan, welcome to the show. 24 00:01:21,492 --> 00:01:22,122 Hi Alex. 25 00:01:22,242 --> 00:01:22,992 Thanks for having me. 26 00:01:23,487 --> 00:01:24,487 It's great to have you. 27 00:01:24,647 --> 00:01:28,217 You and I, we agreed to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence 28 00:01:28,337 --> 00:01:32,837 on business processes, but since we spent both a lot of time enabling 29 00:01:32,837 --> 00:01:36,317 clients on customer relationship management, I didn't want to miss the 30 00:01:36,317 --> 00:01:39,737 opportunity, so to say, to compare notes. 31 00:01:40,082 --> 00:01:45,062 So maybe to illustrate the recurrent transformational challenges, 32 00:01:45,062 --> 00:01:50,132 would you mind taking us through a particularly eventful CRM project? 33 00:01:50,535 --> 00:01:52,065 Oh, absolutely Alex. 34 00:01:52,065 --> 00:01:53,355 I've got a lot to pick from. 35 00:01:53,425 --> 00:01:58,955 One that comes to mind recently would be a big transformation from a well-known 36 00:01:59,495 --> 00:02:02,015 ERP, one of the big market players, right? 37 00:02:02,015 --> 00:02:05,885 That had been implemented and customized and ingrained in processes 38 00:02:07,020 --> 00:02:09,830 for the last 12 to 15 years. 39 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:15,400 And when something like that happens, and as an organization grows and processes 40 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,840 become entangled with technology and people become attached to their 41 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,550 own processes, when it comes time to consider a replacement for something 42 00:02:24,550 --> 00:02:27,130 like that, it goes far beyond technology. 43 00:02:27,260 --> 00:02:32,655 It goes immediately into the realm of change management, which is helping people 44 00:02:32,655 --> 00:02:36,645 understand why the change is happening and how it's going to impact them, and, 45 00:02:37,045 --> 00:02:39,025 why the organization is making the move. 46 00:02:39,625 --> 00:02:45,415 And so in this particular case, there was an owner internally of that CRM 47 00:02:45,415 --> 00:02:50,715 and there's, even more of a personal attachment, when somebody considers 48 00:02:51,375 --> 00:02:53,325 something to be their baby, so to speak. 49 00:02:53,325 --> 00:02:56,805 They've poured their effort and blood, sweat, and tears into this 50 00:02:56,805 --> 00:02:59,105 application for such a long time. 51 00:02:59,755 --> 00:03:01,345 And now you're gonna take it away from them. 52 00:03:01,375 --> 00:03:03,445 There's a very personal element to that. 53 00:03:03,865 --> 00:03:09,885 So in this case, very early, in the process, we had to align with the 54 00:03:09,885 --> 00:03:16,725 executives of this company and say, we need you if this is going to be a success. 55 00:03:17,215 --> 00:03:23,243 We cannot go into this replacing one enterprise CRM with another without having 56 00:03:23,303 --> 00:03:28,523 buy-in from the executive level that you're gonna help us manage this change. 57 00:03:28,743 --> 00:03:31,923 There's going to be pushback and there's going to be pain and there's 58 00:03:31,923 --> 00:03:36,673 going to be a tendency to want to remake what you already have. 59 00:03:37,543 --> 00:03:40,583 That's a big pitfall in any technology project. 60 00:03:40,583 --> 00:03:42,053 CRM is no exception. 61 00:03:42,573 --> 00:03:44,733 you want to use your target application. 62 00:03:44,763 --> 00:03:48,123 If you've got great reasons for moving to it, that's fine, but you want to use 63 00:03:48,123 --> 00:03:53,043 that target application as it's intended, not rebuild what you've done in the past. 64 00:03:53,253 --> 00:03:57,537 And so the pain there is in helping people understand the why. 65 00:03:57,707 --> 00:04:02,437 I have three kids and I can tell them to do something just like an executive could 66 00:04:02,437 --> 00:04:05,887 tell their employees we're changing CRMs. 67 00:04:06,577 --> 00:04:07,777 End of conversation, right? 68 00:04:07,777 --> 00:04:08,017 No. 69 00:04:08,047 --> 00:04:12,407 What's the first question that your kids are gonna ask? 70 00:04:12,927 --> 00:04:13,147 Why? 71 00:04:13,967 --> 00:04:14,297 Why? 72 00:04:15,047 --> 00:04:17,237 Every time employees are no different. 73 00:04:17,287 --> 00:04:18,097 Why are we changing? 74 00:04:18,147 --> 00:04:22,527 We're changing because our business has changed or our technology is outdated. 75 00:04:22,557 --> 00:04:24,297 We're falling behind our competition. 76 00:04:24,607 --> 00:04:27,717 We've maybe we've acquired additional business units that have other 77 00:04:27,717 --> 00:04:29,577 requirements, whatever that may be. 78 00:04:29,577 --> 00:04:33,684 That why is critical and it's only the second step right in, in 79 00:04:33,727 --> 00:04:35,137 this change management process. 80 00:04:35,137 --> 00:04:37,087 It's not just, yeah, we are changing. 81 00:04:37,792 --> 00:04:40,852 But, and here's why we're changing organizationally, that starts 82 00:04:40,852 --> 00:04:42,022 to frame the picture right? 83 00:04:42,442 --> 00:04:45,592 But then how does it impact each individual personally? 84 00:04:45,622 --> 00:04:48,522 and that's, maybe a topic for further on in the podcast. 85 00:04:48,522 --> 00:04:54,472 But for this individual use case and this individual story, the executives aligned 86 00:04:54,472 --> 00:04:56,422 very early on and said, we understand. 87 00:04:56,921 --> 00:04:59,921 And they were pressing us to control budget and to control timeline. 88 00:05:00,877 --> 00:05:05,977 And the only way to do that is to make sure that we are, using our application, 89 00:05:05,977 --> 00:05:11,472 our CRM Microsoft Dynamics in our case, as it's intended to be used, if we get 90 00:05:11,472 --> 00:05:14,822 into customizing it to do what you do now and your people are not willing 91 00:05:14,822 --> 00:05:20,702 to change their processes, the budget will extend, the timeline will extend. 92 00:05:20,772 --> 00:05:23,622 the project will become custom, and we don't advise that, right? 93 00:05:23,622 --> 00:05:27,152 We want to use our software, as it's intended to be used, and that's more 94 00:05:27,152 --> 00:05:31,232 important now in the SaaS application world, the software as a service 95 00:05:31,442 --> 00:05:36,092 cloud-based application world than ever because these applications are updated 96 00:05:36,092 --> 00:05:37,772 automatically several times a year. 97 00:05:37,772 --> 00:05:40,592 And the more custom you are, the more painful that can be. 98 00:05:40,892 --> 00:05:44,192 So in this case, as we got the executive buy-in early, which was great. 99 00:05:44,652 --> 00:05:47,282 CEO, CFO, COO, they all agreed. 100 00:05:47,282 --> 00:05:48,782 We understand what you're asking for. 101 00:05:48,782 --> 00:05:52,427 As soon as our consultants get into the project, they started 102 00:05:52,427 --> 00:05:56,667 to get a bit of pushback and that pushback came in the form of 103 00:05:56,757 --> 00:05:58,497 wanting to recreate the old system. 104 00:05:58,497 --> 00:06:01,617 It's a natural thing and it is hard to avoid. 105 00:06:01,617 --> 00:06:08,057 And we consistently met with leadership and reiterated the need to help us because 106 00:06:08,057 --> 00:06:09,652 it's a two-way street, this kind of thing. 107 00:06:09,907 --> 00:06:13,477 Any executives listening out there who are going to do a technology 108 00:06:13,477 --> 00:06:17,377 project, you can't put the entire onus on your implementation partner. 109 00:06:17,732 --> 00:06:20,312 It has to be a joint effort, a partnership. 110 00:06:20,312 --> 00:06:21,842 And this is a great example of that. 111 00:06:22,262 --> 00:06:25,772 So we continuously went back to the executive team and said, we need help. 112 00:06:25,772 --> 00:06:26,342 We need help. 113 00:06:26,342 --> 00:06:27,062 We need help. 114 00:06:27,602 --> 00:06:33,627 And eventually, we got that help in the form of having, this person relegated to 115 00:06:33,627 --> 00:06:37,252 a different area of the project, they're very valuable to the organization. 116 00:06:37,252 --> 00:06:40,672 They're not gonna let them go or anything like that, but they couldn't really 117 00:06:40,672 --> 00:06:44,902 lead their side of it from a functional standpoint because they were so focused 118 00:06:44,902 --> 00:06:46,342 on doing what they've always done. 119 00:06:46,852 --> 00:06:51,077 And so we got a chance to break through that and get a fresh perspective from a 120 00:06:51,077 --> 00:06:56,507 functional lead standpoint on the client side, and we're going live soon on a, 121 00:06:56,557 --> 00:07:02,627 tremendous success under budget, very happy, in terms of the final work product. 122 00:07:03,057 --> 00:07:07,887 And that case, it, it explains the need for a mutual partnership and 123 00:07:07,887 --> 00:07:11,937 executive level change management on the client side as, as well as that 124 00:07:11,937 --> 00:07:14,397 guidance from your technology partner. 125 00:07:15,072 --> 00:07:16,907 Yeah, that's, also my experience. 126 00:07:17,812 --> 00:07:25,212 The need for being involved throughout the initiative, is often underestimated 127 00:07:25,212 --> 00:07:31,252 or maybe there's a hope that I can, just be there on the steering committee 128 00:07:31,432 --> 00:07:33,482 once in a while and that'll be enough. 129 00:07:33,552 --> 00:07:41,322 it's very tempting for people who are used to the existing processes to just 130 00:07:41,322 --> 00:07:46,352 ask, okay, this new technology, just make it like the way we already know. 131 00:07:46,462 --> 00:07:50,957 Yeah, it's so important to give everyone a path forward, 132 00:07:50,957 --> 00:07:55,144 a reason to want the new state. 133 00:07:55,504 --> 00:08:03,014 So besides new roles, what other tools do you have in your toolkit, to 134 00:08:03,014 --> 00:08:07,214 facilitate people's to, to facilitate change management, to facilitate 135 00:08:07,214 --> 00:08:10,254 the, the adoption of the To Be. 136 00:08:11,141 --> 00:08:11,431 Sure. 137 00:08:11,536 --> 00:08:14,296 On the partner side there, there is a lot of that, right? 138 00:08:14,296 --> 00:08:15,466 We are the experts. 139 00:08:15,976 --> 00:08:17,116 We do this all the time. 140 00:08:17,366 --> 00:08:21,526 So any technology partner's role in implementing a business solution, 141 00:08:21,526 --> 00:08:25,021 enterprise business solution, or small, medium sized business 142 00:08:25,021 --> 00:08:26,656 enterpri business solution, right? 143 00:08:27,466 --> 00:08:31,336 Is to provide that context in terms of best practice. 144 00:08:31,366 --> 00:08:34,216 How do we see other people in your situation? 145 00:08:34,636 --> 00:08:38,986 Using this application, how is the application intended to be used? 146 00:08:39,436 --> 00:08:43,446 And this is a different thing than, business process re-engineering. 147 00:08:44,016 --> 00:08:48,326 And there's a fine line there, where you really need a, if you need to 148 00:08:48,326 --> 00:08:52,706 take a step back as an organization and say, how are we operating? 149 00:08:52,706 --> 00:08:54,026 Are we doing it the right way? 150 00:08:54,026 --> 00:08:57,266 Our business has changed and we're floundering in certain areas? 151 00:08:58,316 --> 00:09:02,576 If you wanna take a look at that without a solution in context, you really need a 152 00:09:02,576 --> 00:09:08,216 business process re-engineering firm or consultant who can take a system agnostic 153 00:09:08,216 --> 00:09:11,986 view of that and say, here are the holes in your business that you need to plug. 154 00:09:11,986 --> 00:09:16,396 And then once you get that desired state and process, you come then 155 00:09:16,396 --> 00:09:19,611 to the technology partner and say, here's where we want to be. 156 00:09:20,386 --> 00:09:22,006 Maybe you run an RFP process. 157 00:09:22,006 --> 00:09:26,866 I'm not the biggest fan of RFP processes in terms of the best way to select 158 00:09:26,866 --> 00:09:30,046 software, but they can be useful as long as they're properly executed. 159 00:09:30,446 --> 00:09:34,396 And you go out to the vendors and you say, okay, we've baked what we want 160 00:09:34,396 --> 00:09:36,496 to be when we grow up, so to speak. 161 00:09:36,496 --> 00:09:36,886 and. 162 00:09:37,921 --> 00:09:39,211 How are you gonna get us there? 163 00:09:39,511 --> 00:09:41,911 Because that's where the technology partner is gonna help. 164 00:09:41,911 --> 00:09:45,711 Now, some entities have business process re-engineering and 165 00:09:45,711 --> 00:09:47,241 technology layer to them. 166 00:09:48,111 --> 00:09:50,756 I tend to like to separate the two of them, to some degree. 167 00:09:50,756 --> 00:09:53,757 And get a, an unbiased view of where you should be, and then 168 00:09:53,877 --> 00:09:55,497 go find the right tool, right? 169 00:09:55,917 --> 00:10:00,327 And so once you have that desired state in mind, then you 170 00:10:00,327 --> 00:10:01,707 go find the right technology. 171 00:10:01,707 --> 00:10:05,982 You go query partners, and you get demos and you get RFP responses and 172 00:10:05,982 --> 00:10:07,632 you get answers to your questions. 173 00:10:07,632 --> 00:10:11,472 Here's where we want to be now we have decided that, can you get us there? 174 00:10:11,872 --> 00:10:17,092 and so then when it comes to us, the job is to say yes or no. 175 00:10:17,122 --> 00:10:18,762 And man, I've said no. 176 00:10:19,007 --> 00:10:24,557 In my 17 years doing this quite a few times, a good technology partner is 177 00:10:24,557 --> 00:10:27,667 not going to, just say, oh yeah, sure. 178 00:10:27,697 --> 00:10:29,797 we'll check the boxes before they understand it. 179 00:10:29,797 --> 00:10:35,107 And a good story around that: I remember one early in my career and 180 00:10:35,157 --> 00:10:39,987 I had been doing it for a couple years in terms of ERP and CRM, and 181 00:10:40,047 --> 00:10:45,292 I walk into a conference room and one of the lead executives comes in. 182 00:10:46,372 --> 00:10:48,922 I hadn't even had a chance to speak with this individual. 183 00:10:48,922 --> 00:10:51,772 I had spoken to a lot of other people in the organization. 184 00:10:52,282 --> 00:10:55,882 But still we had a lot to learn and we were there for discovery, right? 185 00:10:55,882 --> 00:10:59,752 We were there to learn about their business and to understand the degree 186 00:10:59,752 --> 00:11:03,472 of fit with our application, and could we get them to that what do 187 00:11:03,472 --> 00:11:04,942 you want to be when you grow upstate? 188 00:11:04,942 --> 00:11:05,872 Can we get you there? 189 00:11:06,352 --> 00:11:08,912 And so the executive kind of comes in late. 190 00:11:09,842 --> 00:11:11,582 And he said, I'm, he says, I'm busy. 191 00:11:11,892 --> 00:11:14,562 I've only got a few minutes here, so give me your five minutes 192 00:11:14,562 --> 00:11:15,792 on why I should go with you. 193 00:11:17,382 --> 00:11:21,528 And it froze me for a minute and I thought, to in internally, right? 194 00:11:21,738 --> 00:11:22,548 I don't know. 195 00:11:22,758 --> 00:11:24,078 and then I just told him, you know what? 196 00:11:24,078 --> 00:11:25,968 I don't know that you should go with us. 197 00:11:26,898 --> 00:11:27,828 That's why we're here. 198 00:11:28,848 --> 00:11:30,138 To figure that out, right? 199 00:11:30,138 --> 00:11:33,528 And so why don't you let us go through some of the paces that we're here to do, 200 00:11:33,828 --> 00:11:35,388 and then I'll come back and I'll tell you. 201 00:11:36,423 --> 00:11:38,733 Either way, transparently, are we the fit? 202 00:11:38,733 --> 00:11:39,543 Are we not the fit? 203 00:11:39,543 --> 00:11:40,563 Is the product the fit? 204 00:11:40,833 --> 00:11:43,023 Do you need to go find another partner, another platform? 205 00:11:43,023 --> 00:11:45,633 Or, hey, maybe you're right, they're in our wheelhouse 206 00:11:45,633 --> 00:11:46,893 where we can deliver success. 207 00:11:46,893 --> 00:11:49,203 Because the last thing that a good technology partner wants 208 00:11:49,203 --> 00:11:53,013 to do is to get into a project where they can't be successful. 209 00:11:53,563 --> 00:11:58,088 To help in that change management, it's gotta be understanding the client's need. 210 00:11:58,088 --> 00:12:02,968 And then, helping them to use the tool as it's intended to be used, not 211 00:12:02,968 --> 00:12:07,298 customizing it for whatever they might want, even if the platform doesn't fit. 212 00:12:08,033 --> 00:12:11,083 Yeah, if you're starting the working relationship with 213 00:12:11,083 --> 00:12:16,633 your partners for delivery non transparently, you get sales answers. 214 00:12:16,633 --> 00:12:17,233 Yes, of course. 215 00:12:17,233 --> 00:12:19,473 It has to be us and we can do everything. 216 00:12:20,003 --> 00:12:24,603 It's just such a bad way to, to begin, on such an initiative because is 217 00:12:24,603 --> 00:12:28,933 going to be so many times when you will need your partner to tell you 218 00:12:28,933 --> 00:12:32,803 the truth, to tell you that, look, this is not going to be that easy. 219 00:12:32,803 --> 00:12:36,283 You're gonna waste a lot of budget on something that 220 00:12:36,283 --> 00:12:37,753 doesn't provide that much value. 221 00:12:38,833 --> 00:12:41,983 If since the beginning you're just setting the tone, like I don't want you to hear 222 00:12:41,983 --> 00:12:46,423 any difficult answers, just give me the No, that's a terrible way to to start. 223 00:12:46,663 --> 00:12:47,683 So let's expand now. 224 00:12:47,723 --> 00:12:52,183 as, as we wanted to talk about the impact of artificial intelligence technologies 225 00:12:52,183 --> 00:12:53,443 that have been coming to market. 226 00:12:53,443 --> 00:12:57,998 So staying within functions that deal with, customers. 227 00:12:57,998 --> 00:13:01,228 So whether it's, your customer service department, your sales team, et cetera. 228 00:13:01,588 --> 00:13:06,088 From what you've been seeing in the last year or two, what has been some 229 00:13:06,088 --> 00:13:12,088 of the capabilities that they have been looking to get now that there is 230 00:13:12,118 --> 00:13:14,768 additional technical, features available? 231 00:13:15,262 --> 00:13:21,682 So AI is still on the horizon in many regards. 232 00:13:21,682 --> 00:13:27,962 It's here, but the true final capabilities or what's to come are unknown to anybody. 233 00:13:28,012 --> 00:13:29,422 it's evolving every day. 234 00:13:30,052 --> 00:13:33,185 And, you go look at the roadmaps for the major. 235 00:13:33,652 --> 00:13:38,302 SaaS software, CRM players, Microsoft Dynamics included. 236 00:13:39,112 --> 00:13:41,842 You'll see when you go through their update release notes. 237 00:13:41,892 --> 00:13:44,082 Every one of them is chockfull of AI. 238 00:13:44,205 --> 00:13:47,955 Microsoft Co-Pilot is what they call co-pilot, this co-pilot, that co-pilot 239 00:13:47,955 --> 00:13:50,205 for sales, co-pilot for customer service. 240 00:13:50,265 --> 00:13:53,665 So the short answer is that, it is completely evolving now. 241 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:57,470 That said, there are concrete use cases that are emerging. 242 00:13:58,140 --> 00:14:03,860 And you mentioned customer service, for instance, you can have somebody enter a 243 00:14:03,860 --> 00:14:10,280 support case in a portal, and that support case is automatically created in Dynamics 244 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:14,810 365 customer service, whatever customer service application you may be using. 245 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,070 I can't speak for others, really, I'm more Microsoft focused, but 246 00:14:18,070 --> 00:14:22,283 in, in the Microsoft case, the AI may suggest solutions right out of 247 00:14:22,283 --> 00:14:24,203 the gate with no human interaction. 248 00:14:24,723 --> 00:14:31,793 It may also help a human be more efficient at their jobs and suggest potential 249 00:14:31,793 --> 00:14:37,373 solutions for them as opposed to searching knowledge bases or Googling something 250 00:14:37,373 --> 00:14:42,573 or going through documentation, to more efficiently service that customer and 251 00:14:42,573 --> 00:14:44,977 more efficiently use your employee's time. 252 00:14:45,978 --> 00:14:49,518 Now with that comes a little bit of fear on the employee side. 253 00:14:49,518 --> 00:14:51,708 And this goes back to the change management piece 254 00:14:51,708 --> 00:14:53,448 of, am I gonna be replaced? 255 00:14:54,828 --> 00:14:56,028 Do you need me anymore? 256 00:14:56,028 --> 00:15:01,018 And the answer typically right now is, yes, humans are still absolutely required. 257 00:15:01,528 --> 00:15:04,138 Now, can you gain some efficiencies? 258 00:15:04,198 --> 00:15:04,978 Absolutely. 259 00:15:05,198 --> 00:15:10,508 and one, one of my mantras with AI in the way that it's changing businesses 260 00:15:10,508 --> 00:15:16,253 is AI may not be coming for your job as a customer service rep, but 261 00:15:16,523 --> 00:15:20,963 somebody using AI efficiently maybe coming for your job because they're 262 00:15:20,963 --> 00:15:22,223 gonna be better at what they do. 263 00:15:22,463 --> 00:15:25,403 And so systems absolutely enable that. 264 00:15:25,493 --> 00:15:31,693 And where I see a lot of a lot of miss there is going purely feature led in terms 265 00:15:31,693 --> 00:15:33,823 of what can the software application do. 266 00:15:34,423 --> 00:15:39,303 Whereas nowadays, I think the technology roadmap for the organization that 267 00:15:39,303 --> 00:15:44,853 you're partnering with for CRM is tremendously more important because 268 00:15:44,853 --> 00:15:48,903 there's so much that's going to emerge in terms of AI and how you can use it. 269 00:15:49,293 --> 00:15:54,262 That a small shop who might have every feature that a door manufacturer 270 00:15:54,743 --> 00:15:59,873 pick your specific industry needs and they can check all the boxes. 271 00:16:01,028 --> 00:16:05,468 But maybe they're a 10 person company and they don't have the technological 272 00:16:05,468 --> 00:16:08,888 foundation to take advantage of some of this artificial intelligence 273 00:16:08,888 --> 00:16:09,818 that's coming down the pike. 274 00:16:10,178 --> 00:16:15,526 I think that conversation has become, less feature led and more 275 00:16:16,748 --> 00:16:18,758 what's your technology foundation? 276 00:16:18,758 --> 00:16:21,818 You've got all kinds of no code, low code out there. 277 00:16:21,823 --> 00:16:25,608 You don't need as many developers crunching through code to, to 278 00:16:25,608 --> 00:16:26,868 get you where you need to be. 279 00:16:27,288 --> 00:16:30,790 And understanding the technology foundation of your application 280 00:16:30,848 --> 00:16:32,858 is more important than ever. 281 00:16:33,018 --> 00:16:36,938 On the sales side, you can use outta the box features to tell a sales person, 282 00:16:37,208 --> 00:16:41,578 Hey, Alex was interested in buying your widget, whatever you're selling. 283 00:16:42,118 --> 00:16:45,493 You haven't contacted him in seven days. 284 00:16:45,523 --> 00:16:46,663 Do you wanna send him an email? 285 00:16:46,663 --> 00:16:50,693 And that can be presented to a sales rep, in a UI. 286 00:16:50,973 --> 00:16:53,673 And when you log in, it's, Hey, go call Alex. 287 00:16:53,673 --> 00:16:54,663 he wanted to buy something. 288 00:16:54,663 --> 00:16:57,423 I could tell by his emails that he wanted to buy something. 289 00:16:57,423 --> 00:16:58,563 The AI is telling you this. 290 00:16:58,613 --> 00:17:03,173 And that goes back to change management, where we talked about you gotta let 291 00:17:03,173 --> 00:17:04,853 people know, Hey, we're changing. 292 00:17:05,438 --> 00:17:08,438 You gotta let people know, here's why we're changing and this, we're beating 293 00:17:08,438 --> 00:17:10,058 our competitors, we're falling behind. 294 00:17:10,317 --> 00:17:13,988 But the third part of that change management is how is it 295 00:17:13,988 --> 00:17:18,008 going to affect me, Ryan, who's trying to sell Alex my widget? 296 00:17:18,548 --> 00:17:21,788 And so I've been doing it in a notebook just fine for 20 years. 297 00:17:22,058 --> 00:17:25,388 I've been managing in an Excel for the last five years, and 298 00:17:25,428 --> 00:17:26,658 I'm still doing just fine. 299 00:17:27,348 --> 00:17:31,748 But when you explain then to Ryan, if you haven't contacted Alex and you 300 00:17:31,748 --> 00:17:35,498 want to prioritize who you're talking to, the AI will help you do that. 301 00:17:35,498 --> 00:17:37,808 It'll help you create more sales. 302 00:17:37,808 --> 00:17:41,198 It'll help you close more business, and it'll put more money in your pocket. 303 00:17:41,558 --> 00:17:44,558 That's the old WIIFM, if you ever heard of it. 304 00:17:44,558 --> 00:17:47,048 It's one of my favorite radio stations, right? 305 00:17:47,048 --> 00:17:48,188 What's in it for me? 306 00:17:48,998 --> 00:17:55,613 And that's as human as it gets, it is on a very individual level: okay, 307 00:17:55,613 --> 00:17:58,763 great that we're changing on the organizational level and we want 308 00:17:58,763 --> 00:18:00,023 to compete in all those things. 309 00:18:00,023 --> 00:18:01,653 But what about me? 310 00:18:01,693 --> 00:18:01,933 Yeah. 311 00:18:02,053 --> 00:18:04,183 How is it going to affect me as well? 312 00:18:04,993 --> 00:18:07,843 It's gonna help you close more sales and put more money in your pocket. 313 00:18:07,843 --> 00:18:13,003 And here's how that conversation has to happen internally, because 314 00:18:13,333 --> 00:18:16,503 you're not gonna have every sales rep in your company sitting on 315 00:18:16,503 --> 00:18:18,303 demos and making a CRM decision. 316 00:18:18,353 --> 00:18:22,013 You ever try to get five friends to agree on where to go to dinner. 317 00:18:22,073 --> 00:18:22,973 It'll never happen. 318 00:18:23,603 --> 00:18:28,788 That decision has to happen on the executive level, but then the executives 319 00:18:28,788 --> 00:18:35,178 have to push down to the individuals using the software: here's why and here's how 320 00:18:35,178 --> 00:18:38,358 it's going to affect you as a person. 321 00:18:38,358 --> 00:18:40,188 And AI is a big part of that. 322 00:18:40,248 --> 00:18:45,558 Every employee should want to leverage AI because you, you will fall behind 323 00:18:45,558 --> 00:18:47,478 competitively if you don't, right? 324 00:18:47,478 --> 00:18:51,363 There could be someone 20 years younger with less experience who comes in and 325 00:18:51,363 --> 00:18:55,293 can do your job better because they're open to change and they're open to using 326 00:18:55,293 --> 00:18:57,513 the tools that are available to them. 327 00:18:57,773 --> 00:18:59,873 That goes back to that internal change part of it. 328 00:19:00,623 --> 00:19:04,863 And there's definitely the pressure stay, to remain competitive, to 329 00:19:04,863 --> 00:19:08,913 make sure that you use the tools to augment your productivity. 330 00:19:09,783 --> 00:19:15,353 I've also been hearing other patterns that, benefit employees. 331 00:19:15,353 --> 00:19:16,398 I've heard for example. 332 00:19:17,343 --> 00:19:25,233 quite a few instances or examples where we humans are not that great on doing 333 00:19:25,263 --> 00:19:31,743 repetitive tasks that require constant focus and, to ensure quality be always, 334 00:19:32,053 --> 00:19:34,223 a hundred percent, depending on the task. 335 00:19:34,223 --> 00:19:38,913 But if you have lots of smaller tasks, at some point, actually, the 336 00:19:38,913 --> 00:19:46,548 artificial intelligence can be an amazing partner before you complete 337 00:19:46,548 --> 00:19:49,668 the case or whatever you're working on, to have a look over the shoulder 338 00:19:49,668 --> 00:19:53,838 very quickly, give you feedback without involving any managers or anything. 339 00:19:53,838 --> 00:19:58,348 Just yeah, you've ticked all the boxes that are mentioned in the SOP, so I 340 00:19:58,348 --> 00:20:03,558 think there is also the other design patterns or other patterns of how 341 00:20:03,708 --> 00:20:07,698 employees benefit, besides the one we've mentioned already, or the one 342 00:20:07,698 --> 00:20:11,388 where you get, uh, assistance when you're doing research because you know 343 00:20:11,388 --> 00:20:14,888 you're processing maybe, there's a lot of data to go through, like a knowledge 344 00:20:14,888 --> 00:20:18,958 base and the artificial intelligence of course, a lifesaver in these cases. 345 00:20:19,058 --> 00:20:25,118 And also when it's, giving you reassurance that you've followed the 346 00:20:25,118 --> 00:20:27,608 process, you've tick ticked all the boxes. 347 00:20:28,688 --> 00:20:34,148 So is that how you see artificial intelligence implementation 348 00:20:34,148 --> 00:20:35,948 in current business processes? 349 00:20:35,948 --> 00:20:41,948 It's around the current workforce, or do you see that we're already, 350 00:20:42,348 --> 00:20:47,178 approaching a time when we are going to have, artificial intelligence 351 00:20:47,178 --> 00:20:49,428 that take over full functions. 352 00:20:50,428 --> 00:20:53,728 I think that it's inevitable that artificial intelligence will take over 353 00:20:53,728 --> 00:20:57,858 full functions, and then hopefully allow humans to get out of those 354 00:20:57,858 --> 00:21:03,698 mundane, repetitive tasks, and focus on more creative value added type tasks. 355 00:21:03,698 --> 00:21:07,298 But it's important, in my opinion, to divide artificial intelligence. 356 00:21:08,078 --> 00:21:10,028 There's really two big groups, in my opinion. 357 00:21:10,028 --> 00:21:13,868 You've got tactical, artificial intelligence, is what I call it. 358 00:21:13,868 --> 00:21:17,963 I am not, I don't know, what the industry would call it, but that is, okay, hey, 359 00:21:18,623 --> 00:21:22,703 I wanna write this email and I want to have AI revise it for me, right? 360 00:21:22,703 --> 00:21:26,833 Or I want to, answer a question and I don't want to type this 361 00:21:26,833 --> 00:21:29,563 whole paragraph out and I'm not quite sure how to articulate it. 362 00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:32,623 So I'm gonna put it in ChatGPT and let it do it for me, and I'm 363 00:21:32,623 --> 00:21:33,823 gonna copy and paste it, right? 364 00:21:34,513 --> 00:21:37,203 I. That is a tactical efficiency gain, right? 365 00:21:37,203 --> 00:21:39,633 Which is a, certainly an important part of AI. 366 00:21:40,033 --> 00:21:42,013 And you better be ready to do this guys. 367 00:21:42,013 --> 00:21:45,163 If you're not willing to take this on, you're gonna fall behind in 368 00:21:45,163 --> 00:21:48,583 terms of performance against your, colleagues and your competitors. 369 00:21:48,583 --> 00:21:52,553 So you've gotta leverage that tactical part of it, get an answer 370 00:21:52,553 --> 00:21:55,823 for something, write an email, all of those things, populate a 371 00:21:55,823 --> 00:21:59,183 spreadsheet, create a PowerPoint, all of these type tactical things. 372 00:21:59,183 --> 00:22:03,903 But from a business and enterprise perspective or a C-level perspective, 373 00:22:04,413 --> 00:22:09,203 there's the business insights and the decision making that comes with letting 374 00:22:09,323 --> 00:22:16,173 machine learning and AI that is leveraging your data, drive your business decisions. 375 00:22:16,233 --> 00:22:20,433 That's much different than a tactical use case for an individual employee. 376 00:22:21,618 --> 00:22:23,718 And I saw a great cartoon. 377 00:22:24,338 --> 00:22:27,998 it was a couple guys in a shirt and tie, and one of 'em is clearly the boss. 378 00:22:28,598 --> 00:22:31,958 he says, Hey, so and so we need AI, make it happen. 379 00:22:33,038 --> 00:22:35,198 And the other guy says, okay, what do you want to use it for? 380 00:22:35,478 --> 00:22:38,268 And the boss says, I don't know, but we need it immediately. 381 00:22:39,288 --> 00:22:41,418 And I hear that, it's reality, right? 382 00:22:42,418 --> 00:22:43,973 It's real life. 383 00:22:44,853 --> 00:22:48,403 And so we get it all the time, I wanna use AI tomorrow. 384 00:22:48,453 --> 00:22:49,833 What's your current landscape like? 385 00:22:49,833 --> 00:22:54,093 We've got data in Excel, we've got it in Outlook, we've got it in notebooks. 386 00:22:54,093 --> 00:22:57,723 We've got it in this antiquated on-premise ERP system. 387 00:22:58,263 --> 00:22:58,623 Okay. 388 00:22:58,623 --> 00:23:00,453 You can use the tactical side of AI. 389 00:23:00,453 --> 00:23:07,113 You're not ready for business analytics and driving enterprise level decisions 390 00:23:07,113 --> 00:23:09,063 yet, because your data's a mess. 391 00:23:09,543 --> 00:23:14,883 You cannot do it as an organization until you aggregate your data in an organized 392 00:23:14,883 --> 00:23:16,593 model and you get it in the cloud. 393 00:23:16,898 --> 00:23:20,313 As we're about to wrap up, I usually ask a couple of questions at the end. 394 00:23:20,313 --> 00:23:27,573 So one is, what is a book tool or habit has made a particularly significant 395 00:23:27,573 --> 00:23:29,373 impact on yourself in the last 12 months? 396 00:23:30,373 --> 00:23:32,413 Prioritize your own day. 397 00:23:33,043 --> 00:23:36,433 Don't let your Outlook inbox do that for you. 398 00:23:36,673 --> 00:23:37,873 And this is important. 399 00:23:37,993 --> 00:23:42,463 I read a book called Essentialism, talks about making conscious decisions. 400 00:23:42,883 --> 00:23:45,553 If you don't make a decision, the universe, so to speak, 401 00:23:45,553 --> 00:23:46,273 will make it for you. 402 00:23:46,273 --> 00:23:50,668 So if you come in and into your day, most people typically have a 403 00:23:50,668 --> 00:23:53,518 handful of very high value tasks. 404 00:23:53,518 --> 00:23:58,018 Here are the things that I need to do today that are really going to impact 405 00:23:58,648 --> 00:24:02,448 my, my performance, help me succeed at what I'm trying to accomplish. 406 00:24:02,838 --> 00:24:09,468 And so you need to actively choose to do those, not start at 407 00:24:09,468 --> 00:24:10,623 the top of your Outlook inbox. 408 00:24:11,688 --> 00:24:15,348 And start going through all of the meaningless stuff, and maybe you 409 00:24:15,348 --> 00:24:16,728 finally get to the important one. 410 00:24:16,998 --> 00:24:19,428 And a key part of that is turn your notifications off. 411 00:24:19,668 --> 00:24:20,448 That's what I do. 412 00:24:20,777 --> 00:24:25,548 Because what happens is, even if you prioritize your day, like I do, I've 413 00:24:25,548 --> 00:24:29,368 got a list, and I say, here's, here are the things I need to accomplish first. 414 00:24:29,368 --> 00:24:33,358 And I try to do those, and then I get to the less value added stuff. 415 00:24:33,408 --> 00:24:35,928 If you get an Outlook popup, it's human nature. 416 00:24:36,138 --> 00:24:37,818 What are you gonna do on that Outlook popup? 417 00:24:38,958 --> 00:24:39,543 You're gonna click it. 418 00:24:39,768 --> 00:24:40,698 grab your attention. 419 00:24:40,698 --> 00:24:40,818 Of 420 00:24:41,013 --> 00:24:41,613 That's right. 421 00:24:42,373 --> 00:24:45,463 and you're gonna get sucked into something less value added, right? 422 00:24:45,463 --> 00:24:48,913 You're, this is not as important of a task, but you just let that 423 00:24:48,913 --> 00:24:50,593 pop up dictate what you're doing. 424 00:24:50,593 --> 00:24:53,413 Next thing you do, you're going down a rabbit hole that really 425 00:24:53,413 --> 00:24:54,493 isn't all that important. 426 00:24:54,493 --> 00:24:56,803 So I turn Outlook popups off. 427 00:24:56,803 --> 00:24:59,053 I don't have Outlook open all the time. 428 00:24:59,053 --> 00:25:02,053 Whatever your email application you use, most people use Outlook and 429 00:25:02,053 --> 00:25:03,793 I work through my important stuff. 430 00:25:04,623 --> 00:25:08,283 I open up Outlook and I go through all the rest of the noise. 431 00:25:08,643 --> 00:25:10,533 And I think it's tremendously important. 432 00:25:10,623 --> 00:25:13,293 You decide what's important for your day. 433 00:25:13,453 --> 00:25:17,083 don't let you know a pop up or an email list do it for you. 434 00:25:18,023 --> 00:25:19,553 I completely agree with that one. 435 00:25:20,603 --> 00:25:25,383 And the final question, we've talked about many things that are changing of course, 436 00:25:25,383 --> 00:25:27,453 and change management to deal with it. 437 00:25:27,903 --> 00:25:30,633 But is there maybe one thing that you would expect to remain 438 00:25:30,693 --> 00:25:31,853 unchanged 10 years from now? 439 00:25:32,180 --> 00:25:36,980 We talked about people all day, and I think the idea that you have 440 00:25:36,980 --> 00:25:40,640 to put yourself in other people's shoes and you have to communicate. 441 00:25:40,730 --> 00:25:45,700 My favorite saying is the problem with communica, the main problem 442 00:25:45,700 --> 00:25:49,090 with communication is the illusion that it's already happened. 443 00:25:50,050 --> 00:25:53,590 People assume that the person you're talking to knows what 444 00:25:53,590 --> 00:25:54,760 you know and vice versa. 445 00:25:55,060 --> 00:25:56,680 This is big in technology, guys. 446 00:25:56,730 --> 00:26:02,685 If myself as a business, so systems solutions expert is going to assume that 447 00:26:02,795 --> 00:26:06,995 this CFO who's doing it for the first time in 10 years knows what I know. 448 00:26:07,565 --> 00:26:09,425 I'm gonna miss most of the stuff. 449 00:26:09,425 --> 00:26:10,565 You have to start foundationally. 450 00:26:10,595 --> 00:26:15,430 But likewise, we need that same feedback from the organization as a business 451 00:26:15,430 --> 00:26:19,780 partner where, I don't know what you know about your business, and I hear all 452 00:26:19,780 --> 00:26:21,550 the time we're just like everybody else. 453 00:26:21,550 --> 00:26:22,690 We just want the basics. 454 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:28,750 Never have two companies implemented, CRM, or ERP for that matter, any 455 00:26:28,750 --> 00:26:30,670 other system exactly the same way. 456 00:26:30,910 --> 00:26:32,020 There's always nuance. 457 00:26:32,020 --> 00:26:36,400 It could be industry, it could be the way that your business operates, 458 00:26:36,580 --> 00:26:39,640 but what would I expect not to change is that human element that 459 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:40,750 we've been talking about today. 460 00:26:40,750 --> 00:26:45,740 It's the importance of communication and the importance of putting 461 00:26:45,740 --> 00:26:48,950 yourself in other people's shoes and understanding what motivates them. 462 00:26:49,263 --> 00:26:50,757 Not we're changing systems. 463 00:26:50,757 --> 00:26:51,927 It's my way or the highway. 464 00:26:52,317 --> 00:26:54,207 You have to go deeper than that as a leader. 465 00:26:54,477 --> 00:26:55,257 Here's why. 466 00:26:55,587 --> 00:26:56,667 Here's how it affects you. 467 00:26:56,667 --> 00:26:58,047 What are your concerns? 468 00:26:58,377 --> 00:27:00,687 Here's how we're gonna empower you to use the tool. 469 00:27:00,807 --> 00:27:04,047 Here's how we're going to provide constant care and feeding for you to 470 00:27:04,047 --> 00:27:08,097 continue to grow and use this tool and help you thrive as a person. 471 00:27:08,107 --> 00:27:09,877 That human element's not going anywhere. 472 00:27:10,667 --> 00:27:13,712 Absolutely Ryan, it's been an absolute pleasure. 473 00:27:13,872 --> 00:27:15,402 Likewise, Alex, great talk. 474 00:27:15,402 --> 00:27:16,542 Thank you so much for having me. 475 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:21,659 Ryan reminded us that every technology initiative, whether a shiny GenAI pilot 476 00:27:22,069 --> 00:27:27,619 or a full scale Dynamics rollout, lives or dies on three human checkpoints: a 477 00:27:27,619 --> 00:27:32,359 clear why from leadership, an honest look at process fit versus custom nostalgia 478 00:27:32,929 --> 00:27:37,459 and continuous communication that answers each employee's what's in it for me. 479 00:27:38,449 --> 00:27:42,529 If you'd like to see how Ryan and his team put these principles into action 480 00:27:42,829 --> 00:27:46,579 and dig into tools that help you stay self-sufficient, take a look at 481 00:27:46,579 --> 00:27:48,709 their resources at Western Computer. 482 00:27:49,249 --> 00:27:50,779 The link is in the description. 483 00:27:51,859 --> 00:27:55,729 As always, we have more exciting topics and guest appearances lined up, so 484 00:27:55,729 --> 00:28:00,499 stay tuned for more tales of innovation that inspire challenge and transform. 485 00:28:00,979 --> 00:28:02,809 Until next time, peace. 486 00:28:04,420 --> 00:28:06,760 Thanks for tuning in to Innovation Tales. 487 00:28:11,500 --> 00:28:15,190 Get inspired, connect with other practitioners and approach the 488 00:28:15,190 --> 00:28:17,230 digital revolution with confidence. 489 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,550 Visit innovation-tales.com for more episodes. 490 00:28:22,890 --> 00:28:23,910 See you next time.