TechTables

In today’s episode we’ll cover: What’s important to understand about 5G from Latency to Network Slicing Why it matters for the U.S. to be a leader when it comes to 5G wireless technology What CIOs and CTOs need to know now about 5G today We talk about the Top 5 Enterprise Use Cases for 5G Samuel's thoughts on the future of telemedicine in the context of 5G Samuel talks about Las Vegas as a smart city, and the private 5G network the city is building out right now. Sam breaks down what “slice the network” and the possibilities are for 5G when it comes to the future of smart cities.

Public safety and education The Digital Divide in Education What most public sector CIOs or CTOs are missing What a world-class digital government looks like today and in the future Latency Network Slicing

Podcast Topics The StoryBrand Framework in the context of data science Design thinking in data science How to value data as a corporate asset (Current GAAP accounting standards do not permit data (intangible assets) to be capitalized on the balance sheet). Chipotle use case - improving same-store sales using data and analytics We’ll talk about the MMMM of Digital transformation Everything Bill learned about management he learned coaching little league baseball.

Description:  Digital future - how Stewart thinks mobile is going to change the way we interact with both private and public transportation infrastructure. We'll talk about the frictionless experience for the consumer in the modern digital age Physical and digital mobility hubs NJ Transit's “Innovation Challenges” Mobility as a service

Podcast Questions for Description - Where the SBA sees the future of AI and ML - Talk about Sanjay being a business first technologist and challenging the status quo in IT - The story of the SBA implementing the CARES Act Congress passed in March. - What advice Sanjay would you give to CIOs and CTOs in a digital-first world so they don’t get fired. - The importance of customer experience - The importance of an agile mindset - The SBA’s success with its 90-day sprints

Ep.24 Inspire and Empower: How You Can Lead your IT Teams with Vision and Passion with Doug Lange, Chief Strategy Officer at State of Arizona

Ep.23 The E-Commerce Takeover: How eBay Drives World-Class Software Innovation with Taylor Friesen, IOS Engineer at eBay

Podcast Questions: A number of emerging technologies Talk about lean design and construction and reducing waste with the use of technology today. BIM (Building Information Modeling), Smart Cities, and Infrastructure and why BIM is a necessity rather than an option. 3D Modeling for smart cities We’ll talk about what makes VR so fascinating and a few of the other reality technologies.

Podcast Questions Why companies think they had a digital transformation plan pre-Covid but they really didn’t. We’ll discuss the growth of the NFC Chip Market Adidas Telestar 18 soccer ball and the Adidas Parlay shoe and the many use cases for NFC technology. We’ll talk about the power of retail NFC with contactless payments Then we’ll talk about RFID and inventory management along with example retailers like Lululemon and Macy’s and how they’re use RFID technology to track every item across its fleet of stores and fulfillment centers to boost asset management systems at scale. And we’ll check in with Amir on how his team is handling remote and distributed work.

Podcast Questions The backup-as-a-service and the larger cloud computing market today. Talk about the biggest drivers of cloud spend in the enterprise IT market. Talk about how Clumio makes it easier to leverage agility and scalability of in the cloud. What really separates Clumio from the other SaaS back-up-as-a-service companies today? Hint there aren’t any. Talk about the journey Clumio is on from helping companies secure its on-prem assets (think the red envelope Netflix days shipping out DVDs) to becoming a next generation cloud company (think Netflix Studios) and the journey in between. What advice Poojan has for entrepreneurs, startup founders, and business folks in general about building and thinking with a long-term mindset in business.

Podcast Questions Joe: But let’s kick off today with a little bit about you and your background as a NASA software engineer to wanting to move to the PHA side. What’s the story there? → Follow up: We have a fun connection through Yardi Systems – a big player in the property management world – which I only found out from our pre-podcast call when you were wearing a Yardi t-shirt. I called one of my buddies on the PHA team at Yardi and he told me he mailed you that shirt – Jeff Bischoff. Does that name ring a bell? …. We’ve got new swag coming in and it’s looking pretty hot – I’ll definitely have to send you some from my company Nagarro. From a podcast I recently listen to I know you’re an undercover nerd – I know digital transformation is a buzz word, but I want to push back a little bit, because everyone said they had a digital transformation plan before Covid and then got blown up in early 2020. Gary Brantley and I laughed that no one had this in their strategic plan coming into 2020. Where is the Atlanta Housing Authority at with its digital transformation journey right now? How do you think about innovation and leveraging cutting edge technology on the PHA side? Let’s talk about the narrative with CIOs like yourself who experience from C-Suite that IT is simply a cost center. You had some great points in your last podcast on changing the narrative along with a new mindset & shareholder-like buy-in. Expand upon that for us today. This might be more on the CTO side – but – how can the PHA leverage new analytics about its participants to make better decisions? Is this something you’re thinking about? What’s your technology vision for the public housing authority in Atlanta post-Covid? Lastly, before we hit the 60 Second “TechTables” segment – what’s the number one problem you are seeking to solve as the CIO at the Atlanta Housing Authority? 60 Second “TechTables” What do you know now that you wish you had known at the beginning (either personal, business, or blend)? LeBron James or Steph Curry? What’s your top 3 personal development books you’d recommend right now?

[Intro] Joe: Hey Mahesh - let’s kick off today with a little bit about you and your background at Thomson Reuters on the public sector side. Let’s start there. Before we dive deeper - talk about the courts and justice landscape today. I didn’t know too much heading into our prep call, and I can imagine the audience doesn’t either. Lay the foundation for our chat today. Thanks for laying the foundation. Now - how do you bring an outstanding experience to the courts and justice system? And what do you think is missing today? Talk about how Thomson Reuters product, “Westlaw Edge.” There’s a lot of data you could harness and surface for lawyers very quickly. How is Thomas Reuters using AI with Westlaw Edge today? When it comes to Covid-19 and the justice system, we as a society are at an inflection point when it comes to having virtual court cases. You mentioned a good point that it’s very “ceremonial” that we meet in person, e..g, a jury trial. How are the courts starting to transition to a remote landscape today? Your job is implementing cloud solutions for the courts today. Talk about the different types of solutions Thomson Reuters has in the marketplace today. Since we’re a tech podcast - describe to the audience what your tech stack looks like? Also, where are you looking to grow post-COVID (if that’s such a thing) on your team? What’s your favorite entrepreneurial project you’ve been working on at Thomson Reuters? 60 Second “TechTables” - How did you get into the public sector? - Favorite Netflix show? - Teams vs. Zoom - and why

Podcast Intro TechTables Podcast #: Prabash Coswette We are back for another week in the world of “TechTables” with me, Joe Toste. I would love to connect with you behind the scenes on LinkedIn, Twitter, & Instagram. There, you can even message me questions for future guests coming on the show. Today, we shift our focus to the digitalization of retail grocery chains with 2x CIO, previously at Vallarta Supermarkets, and now Cardenas Markets with Prabash Coswette. And today’s episode is a special one - I drove down to LA to meet Prabash on a rainy day before Christmas Eve to thank him and his team, and this is where we recorded this client testimonial. I liked it so much I repurposed it into today’s podcast. A huge thank you to Prabash for taking the time to meet with me last December. But that’s quite enough from me. Without further ado, I’m thrilled to welcome Prabash Coswette to chat about retail digitalization, BI, and transformation. Podcast Questions [Intro] Tell us who you are, your background, and what’s it’s like to be a CIO on a day-to-day basis on the retail side. Where did you start your search for Nagarro? What made our service stand out from the other options you explored? What was the obstacle that almost prevented you from working with Nagarro? What made you happiest about working with our company? What’s the main reason you recommend our services? What would you tell someone who’s considering Nagarro as a potential partner? Anything else you’d like that you would like to comment on about Nagarro? To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Hey Jeena - let’s kick off today with a little bit about you and your background actively mentoring and coaching working professionals and startup founders along with being a member of the Expat Women’s community in CA. Let’s transition to your work experience at Google (over 13+ years), and making the jump to HeadSpin + tell the story of how HeadSpin got its name. 1. Let’s talk about the importance of delivering flawless digital experiences across all channels. I think this is a massive gap in the marketplace today for a large number of companies. What I gleaned from HeadSpin's CEO is that the platform's goal is to unify business, development, DevOps, and product teams to deliver high-quality, innovative digital experiences across web, mobile, and 5G. Talk about some use cases and examples the audience can take away right now. 2. In our podcast intro call, you mentioned a phrase, "if your app/web/game that can be connected, it can be tested." With more data than ever before, captured by companies, how does HeadSpin help those companies benchmark against its competition?   3. Quick follow up on digital experiences. What are some traits of companies that are leading digital experiences very well? 4. How HAPI is your app? The mobile industry’s first-ever application performance index for benchmarking the relative latency of leading apps in a given category. For our inaugural report, the capability was showcased in prototype for digital experience leaders for contactless shopping, restaurant delivery, and food delivery apps in the US. Talk about the HAPI index and the benchmarking process. 5. Let's chat about Headspin's peer comparisons - Grocery Apps in the US. Headspin examined how Target, Costco, and Instacart apps compared to their peers. Why is it important to provide a seamless user experience throughout the user journey? 60 Seconds TechTables 1. Favorite mentoring moment? 2. Favorite Netflix show? 3. Top 3 cities you love around the globe? 

Are your employees’ networks as secure as the office? If not, here’s a new crisis consideration: In a pandemic... Cyber hygiene could matter as much as hand hygiene. At least, if you don’t want to suffer breaches on top of everything else this COVID-19 has hurled upon us.  On the latest podcast, I caught up with Kevin Powers, Founding Director, MS in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance at Boston College.  Kevin is an expert on all things cybersecurity.  And he’s seen some troubling things in this crisis.  What Kevin covered: -How to train employees to work remote securely -Why compliance doesn’t mean security -How to convince your C-suite to invest in security This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Kevin Powers. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Joe: But let’s kick off today with a little bit about you and your entrepreneurial background over the years launching several startups and now leading a team of data scientists and machine learning engineers at Honeywell SPS. Let’s start there.  I do want to chat about Honeywell CEO - Darius Adamczyk - who believes the cloud, big data, and artificial intelligence will transform Honeywell from an industrial conglomerate to more of a software company. Where do you see your team playing a role in Honeywell’s digital transformation journey? There’s a lot of shiny objects in the AI and ML space that can distract leadership teams and engineers from actually solving business problems. When we look at the intersection of Honeywell SPS and artificial intelligence - how do you decide which problems to solve and what work matters most? Walk the audience through your process. There’s a great book out there that most business / MBA students / Amazon's Jeff Bezos requires his senior managers to read called The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement that’s been out for 35+ years - which influence industry leaders to move towards continuous improvement. -There’s a concept called business process management (BPM) which aims at cost reduction and efficiency improvements. AI is now taking its place in both the operational and strategic BPM. When it comes to the next generation of warehouse robotics at Honeywell talk about how HON is transforming the way work is done with robotics and IIOT in warehouses today.   What makes AI and robotics so fascinating to you vs. some of the other technologies out today? What’s your vision of the connected worker and industry 4.0 with AI and robotics as we move forward in 2020 and beyond? Lastly, before we hit the 60 Second “TechTables” segment - what’s the number one problem you are seeking to solve as the Global AI Leader at Honeywell  AI & Robotics Lab? 60 Second “TechTables” What do you know now that you wish you had known at the beginning (either personal, business, or blend)? What’s your favorite Netflix show? What’s your top 3 personal development books you’d recommend right now?

Podcast Questions   Joe: But let’s kick off today with a little bit about you and your entrepreneurial journey over the years launching Mokriya – a product design and innovation studio – with a successful exit and now leading that team of 10X developers and designers under the umbrella of Nagarro. Let’s start there.  Google So Google has a group called ATAP (Advance Technology Group) and we helped with project soli – which is a miniature radar that understands human motions at various scales: from the tap of your finger to the movements of your body – and in our case helping to control technology with the snap of a finger.          The Soli technology is now in the Pixel 4 via Motion Sense and the experience is awesome – especially since you can now wave at Pikachu. Talk about the project and the impact we had. Intel Another really cool project we work on was with Intel and the Curie chip. Talk about the challenge of the developing a platform where app builders could connect to sensor data along with time pressure Intel’s executive team put on the release timeline. Twitter Next up – a fan favorite – is our work with Twitter. Talk about our wicked fast process of dropping a senior Twitter PM into our Slack channel with one designer and one developer to create an app – The Twitter Challenger app – used by Steph Curry and Beyoncé for Twitter’s very important media event and the fun name used for their celebrities – the VITs (Very Important Tweeters). Sony Let’s chat about the Sony Xperia and the ability to turn any hard surface into a minority report like touch table. The Sony Xperia touch projects an android tablet onto any hard surface. This project was pretty awesome. Talk about the workshops and prototyping we do before hitting full scale design and development. —> Distributed and remote work is a relevant and hot topic due to coved-19, but when you and brother founded Mokriya over 10 years ago you both had already had the vision for hiring the best and brightest folks from around the global regardless of where they lived. Talk about our culture and how we work with clients across all verticals in a distributed and remote work environment.   60 Second “TechTables” What do you know now that you wish you had known at the beginning (either personal, business, or blend)? Favorite project you’ve worked on to-date? What’s your favorite Netflix show? PS: You can also email me at joe@techtablespodcast.com for anything related to the podcast and joe.toste@nagarro.com if you are interested in learning more about Nagarro and our philosophy on #thinkingbreakthroughs. 

Can we all agree to cool it on the “disruptive” label? Every AI-powered app, cloud-based widget and IoT toaster these days is disruptive.   If everything in this buzzword soup is disruptive, is anything? Yes. And that’s the problem, we’re watering down the word. Take my guest today, Gonzalo Simons, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at uSound.  After a friend started losing his hearing, Gonzalo and his team built a truly disruptive app. It can diagnose and treat hearing loss, potentially helping 400 million people worldwide — many of whom have no chance of affording expensive hearing aids.  They succeeded in being disruptive not by deciding to build an app, but by seeing a real problem and solving it however they could.  In this episode, Gonzalo covers: -The real meaning of disruption and how to achieve it -How his team took on the challenge of hearing loss -How products like uSound and the COVID-19 crisis will shape the future of medicine Check out Gonzalo’s Netflix recommendation: Unorthodox This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Gonzalo Simons.  To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Kids screaming. Dogs Barking.  Bathroom breaks accidentally broadcast to colleagues. Despite the hiccups, we’ve all learned to work on Zoom.  Through this crisis, we’ve seen how powerful some of these teleconferencing programs can be.  Still, there are some areas where they just can’t cut it, like teletherapy.  But my guest today, Russ Greenspan, CTO at PresenceLearning, is tackling the complexities of teletherapy through innovation. What we talked about: -Why the teleconferencing tools we are using to get through the crisis can’t tackle teletherapy -How PresenceLearning approaches innovation -Why working from home in a pandemic is not the same as remote work. This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Russ Greenspan. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

I hate to start another post with yet another invocation of the COVID-19 crisis, but when it comes to digital transformation, it’s hard not to. That’s because the pandemic has forced the world to digitally transform. And anyone who wasn’t already on-board with digital can’t afford to put it off any longer. My guest today is Aman Sethi, Senior Director Commerce & CoBrand Acquisitions at Marriott. He’s an expert on digital transformation and innovative product development and he’s also a die-hard mobile evangelist.  He came on the show to go over: What to keep in mind when it comes to digital transformation How full-stack development teams are changing product development Why mobile is more important than ever This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Aman Sethi. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

The world is going through a lot right now.  It seems like every day something else pops up on the news that leads us further down the path of uncertainty.  There are a lot of unknowns for everybody. What is the world going to look like in 6 months? A year? 5 years? How will the technology landscape have changed? How do we maintain our humanity in the midst of all of this?  On this episode of TechTables, we sit down with Randy Ellis, Global Director of DesignOPS at Mokriya, for a chat around the human side of product design. We talked all about  -The human qualities needed to excel at building a fully remote team -Why empathy is more important now than ever before- -The power of narrative in design.  This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Randy Ellis. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

So, you have a great idea for a product and want to form a startup?   It’s visionary, you say? It’ll change the world?   Well, I hate to break it to you, but, these days, everyone has a great product. It’s what you do with it that matters.    So say my guests today, Aaron Mitchell, CEO of Freeplay App, and Jeff Whitlock, CEO of Unbird.    Drawing upon their product creation experience at Mokriya, Aaron and Jeff came on to explain: How to avoid some of the biggest pitfalls early-stage entrepreneurs can fall into  Why everything should center on the customer How great products actually get created    This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Aaron Mitchell and Jeff Whitlock. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

A friend of mine bought a 4-wheel drive car recently. He lives in California, where the weather is always great.    He never used to drive out to the desert or the mountains, but now he’s there every week. His behavior totally changed to fit the tech he purchased.   Don’t let your company make the same mistake. You should adopt technology to suit your current behavior, not the other way around.    That’s one of the many things I learned from my guest today, Ram Reddy, CTO at Nagarro and former CIO at Rockport.    As you can probably tell, Ram’s experience has taught him a lot about instilling a technology-focused approach in an organization. But he’s also learned a lot about doing it the right way.    Today, Ram shares some of his secrets, including: -How to become more technology-focused -Why companies CIOs should spend time thinking about what they should not do -How to future proof your technology   This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Ram Reddy. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Are you the type of person who washes a dish after using it or do you let them pile up?   If you’re the latter, you know the longer you put it off, the more difficult the task — and defining the word “plate” — becomes.     And in the retail world, a lot of companies find themselves in this position when it comes to moving from legacy to modern systems — and, in particular ERPs.   With so many things piled up, where do you even begin?   To answer that, I spoke with Tej Rampure, Head of SAP at Nagarro and former CIO of Luxury Brand Holdings, where he had tremendous success overhauling the company’s outdated systems.    He went over: -How he updated legacy systems in record time -Why ERPs are becoming simpler to use -How to approach updating your legacy systems   This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Tej Rampure. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here. If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

I just did my annual check-up at the doctor’s office. I’m kind of bad about going, but I’m young and healthy, so it’s fine I don’t really go very often, right?  Anyway, I showed up at my doctor’s office and the tech they were using made it seem like decades since my last visit.  They had the iPad, stats on me from all sorts systems and every test I’ve taken since I was a baby — and they could even send it all to my iPhone. It was amazing, but it’s just the beginning.  Connected worker 4.0 is changing so many industries, but its impact on healthcare is set to change the world.  To learn more about how, I invited Wonjin Kim, Director of Digital Health Wearable Solutions & Partnerships at Samsung, onto the show today to pick his brain about wearables and health.  And, after forgiving me for owning an iPhone, he shared a lot of the amazing ways Connected Worker 4.0 will be shaping health outcomes in the near future.  Wonjin went over: How wearables are already changing healthcare What wearables will mean for the future of health Some of the biggest challenges facing a Connected Worker 4.0 future The Christmas tree problem This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Wonjin Kim. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here

When it comes to the latest tech, we are the ultimate nerds. But some of us like to nerd out about other things, too. Like Star Wars… Does anyone remember the scene when the “rangefinder” gadget pops out of Boba Fett’s helmet and he uses it to track the Millenium Falcon to Cloud City? Well, that iconic scene wasn’t just an awesome moment in a space opera — it might have shaped the future of how we work. That’s what our guest today, Andy Lowery, CEO of RealWear is betting on. His company is producing wearable augmented reality technology which will change how workers interact with the world. He went over: How Boba Fett inspired the head-mounted wearables  The use cases that prove the tech How a symphony of wearable technology is the future of work The challenges in scaling To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here

If you’re a parent, what’s the one thing you wish your kid would do on a plane?  Even if you’re not a parent, what’s the one thing you wish other people’s kids would do on a plane?  If you answered “sleep,” then you are correct!  Well, thanks to Rick Bellioti, Director of Innovation and Customer Experience Design at San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, more kids are sleeping on more flights.  And it all comes down to innovating better customer experiences. I had a chance to ask him how exactly he’s innovating San Diego’s customer experience and he had some great responses. Rick went over: How to approach innovating your CX Why measuring feelings is so tricky How to innovate kids sleeping on flights (yeah, you have to listen to find out!) Why the best technology innovations are hard to notice This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Rick Belliotti. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Remember a few years ago when consumer VR was all the rage? In 2014, when Oculus was acquired by Facebook for over $2B, we were all gearing up for the Ready Player One world looming over the horizon. So, what happened to all the hype? It’s still there, but now it’s all about the enterprise.  I got a chance to speak with Jake Rubin, CEO of HaptX, to find out why his company is so laser-focused on the enterprise with its first commercial product, “HaptX Gloves.” The company is an exciting — and incredibly cool — Series A startup helping VR users to develop simulations with realistic touch feedback, which garnered over $12 million in their latest round of funding. Jake went over: Why HaptX and others have been quick to pivot to the enterprise What haptics are and why they are so important for the future of VR The challenges emerging technologies face when scaling This post is based on a TechTables podcast with Jake Rubin. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.

Do initialisms like AR, AI or IoT make your ears perk up? Do you take a firm stance in the AR vs. MR debate? Is your head always in the cloud? If you’re like me and absolutely obsessed with newest innovations in design and technology, I’ve got something you’ll want to hear.  For those of you who don’t already know me, I’m Joe Toste, Technology Sales Executive at Nagarro, and the host of the newly-launched podcast, TechTables. A show anyone eager to learn from experts at the forefront of design and technology should hear. TechTables is a podcast that gives the listener — and, of course, me — a chance to learn from industry leaders in different organizations and industries around the globe.  In this inaugural podcast, I’ll be going over:  Some of the exciting topics we’ll cover in upcoming podcasts Who I am How you can contact me To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to TechTables here.  If you don’t use iTunes, you can find every episode of TechTables here.