Podcasts about Pegasystems

In the latest episode of Facts vs Feelings, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist, and Sonu Varghese, VP, Global Macro Strategist, welcome tech analyst Dan Ives, Managing Director at Wedbush, to discuss the state of AI, the future of autonomous technologies, China-U.S. relations in tech, and investment opportunities beyond the usual headlines.Broadcasting from Carson's 2025 Spring Partner Summit in Omaha, this conversation blends covers everything from Tesla and Palantir to Microsoft's AI momentum and more.Key TakeawaysTesla Is Not Just a Car Company: Dan emphasized that Tesla should be valued as a disruptive AI and robotics company, not merely an automaker. Autonomous robotics are seen as a core driver of its future valuation.AI Party Is Just Getting Started: We're still in the early innings of the AI revolution—around “10:30 p.m.” on an all-night timeline, according to Dan. He likens skeptics to party-poopers who will wish they had joined once the sun comes up.China Cannot Be Decoupled: Efforts to cut ties with China in tech manufacturing are unrealistic, says Dan. The U.S. relies heavily on Chinese infrastructure, and disrupting this would have broad economic consequences.Apple as the AI Highway: While Apple may have lagged in AI innovation early on, Dan believes it will become the dominant platform for consumer AI applications thanks to its vast device ecosystem and installed base.Microsoft's Untapped AI Monetization: Despite a recent lull in stock performance, Dan sees Microsoft as massively underappreciated in its AI capabilities, especially within its enterprise customer base.Google (Alphabet) Is Underloved: Alphabet is currently the most underestimated of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, particularly due to overstated concerns about search being disrupted by AI.Palantir's Long-Term Role: Dan projects Palantir as a trillion-dollar company in the making, thanks to its growing role in enterprise and sovereign AI applications.AI Stocks Beyond the Headlines: Emerging names like Pegasystems, SoundHound, Veronis, and CyberArk are cited as under-the-radar plays in the AI boom, especially in areas like cybersecurity and data infrastructure.Autonomous + Robotics = Game Changer: Dan envisions a near-future where humanoid robots under $20,000 become household norms—transforming labor, transportation, and daily life.Bitcoin's Role in Tech: Bitcoin's institutional adoption is growing, and Dan sees it as a risk-on asset with increasing relevance, especially in a deregulated environment. Connect with Ryan:• LinkedIn: Ryan Detrick• X: @ryandetrick Connect with Sonu:• LinkedIn: Sonu Varghese• X: @sonusvarghese Connect with Dan:• LinkedIn: Daniel Ives• X: @DivesTech Questions about the show? We'd love to hear from you! factsvsfeelings@carsongroup.com#FactsVsFeelings #DanIves #AIRevolution #TeslaAI #MicrosoftAI #TechInvesting #AutonomousFuture #InnovationEconomy #NVIDIA #Palantir #CryptoAndTech #ChinaUSRelations #BigTech #FutureOfWork #CarsonPartners #FinancialPodcast 

Send us a textCall center and customer service workflows, particularly in heavily regulated sectors like banking, financial services, and insurance, often involve a level of complexity that standard CRM platforms struggle to accommodate. Processes such as client onboarding, approval cycles, and exception handling require dynamic, BPM-like capabilities that go beyond basic ticketing or task management. While major CRM solutions may offer customization, they frequently lack the agility and deep integration needed for real-time process orchestration and ad-hoc decision-making. This is where Pegasystems distinguishes itself, leveraging its strengths in process automation, AI-driven decisioning, and dynamic case management to manage intricate workflows with precision and adaptability. Positioned as a leader in the convergence of CRM and business process management, Pegasystems stands out for organizations seeking a platform that can handle complex service environments while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Pegasystems' capabilities. We covered many grounds, including where Pegasystems might be a fit in the enterprise architecture and where it might be overused. Finally, they analyze many data points to help understand the core strengths and weaknesses of Pegasystems.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Today's interview is with Don Schuerman, the CTO at Pegasystems, an industry-leading low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation. Don joins me today to talk about the upcoming PegaWorld 2025 (PegaWorld is taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from June 1st to the 3rd), Agentic AI (obvs.), how some organizations are implementing agentic solutions and it is causing chaos, a better way to do it, Pega Blueprint, legacy transformation and how to get it right. This podcast is sponsored by Pega. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Starting a resolution revolution – Interview with Tom Eggemeier, Adrian McDermott and Matthias Göhler of Zendesk – and is number 538 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

According to Salesforce research, 66% of sales representatives feel overwhelmed by the number of tools they use. So how can you streamline your tech stack to enhance operational efficiency and drive revenue growth?Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I am your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Serge Lobo, the Chief Revenue Officer at Loadstone. Thank you for joining us. I’d love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Serge Lobo: Thank you, Shawnna. Thanks for having me here today. What is this year today? So I’m 27 years in sales, 23 years in sales management. I used to work for multiple different known brands like Microsoft, HP, Pegasystems, Ingenico, and SAS, so that’s a famous analytics company. And now I’m chief revenue officer, so we try to get The right title for my position because nowadays in size business, the revenue comes not only from sales, but also from retention of the customers. So my role is actually to wrench all the sales processes and ensure that the customers are getting the right impact so that we managed to retain them and then ensure that they grow together with us. SS: Amazing. Well, thank you again for joining us today. Given your extensive experience in sales leadership across both large enterprises and startup organizations, I’d love to understand how does your background influence your strategy for driving global revenue growth at Loadstone? SL: I play the thinking first of all, so before making any moves, any discussion. So we need to think of what do we want to achieve here rather than just get the contract. Yeah, it’s not as simple as it used to be when you get a call and then just because you have a fascinating piece of software, someone getting excited and then just signs the contract. Not anymore. A lot of competitors, like in our space, we just made a rough calculations and we had. We counted like 14, 000 companies worldwide that are doing pretty much the same things as we do 14, 000. Yeah, that’s a lot. And, uh, the concept that I apply is that first of all, so we need to think of how we drive the process and then go after automation of that. So we need to design the processes. We need to get to build the operating model, and then we need to understand the requirements for the systems for the systems that we want to deploy and to benefit from them. And of course, well, all that. Goes through the, uh, revenue thinking. I’m a chief revenue officer. So I’m partially responsible not only for revenue, but also for spendings. Yeah. So spendings are also the key elements. So every solution that we’re using should be cost efficient for us. SS: Amazing. And I understand Lodestone recently went through a rebrand, which can bring a lot of significant changes for the sales team. What are some of your best practices for helping your teams effectively navigate this transition? SL: Well, first of all is, uh, we need to be transparent. Yeah. We need to be transparent and we need to make sure that the team buys the general idea. And then the team is ready for change. Cause as for any human being, the change is the biggest challenge. Yeah. So after five years old, so then we are really hesitant to change, which is surprising before five years, we want to try everything. You want to change everything like every day. After we are five years old. So we become really hesitant to that. That’s pretty much the major challenge that we have when we change anything in the company. We won’t change the sales process and we need to sell that first to people. And sometimes it’s, it’s not an easy task. And so we try different means of getting that to people so that they start to use that. It’s because it’s not only to make. People try to stand that, right? But it’s also like, do you use that in like everyday work? Do you use that in everyday customer discussions? Do you use that when you talk to your peers? And so that’s most difficult. And so we spend a huge amount of time now in terms of like getting them to people so that they start using that. Yeah. Cause we have people from different generations, different background, different experience. And so of course, well, they try to use the experience first. All right, so we are now in Lodestone. Okay, so what’s your product, product X, Y, Z. All right, let me try to sell that. And then we need to make sure that people are doing that in the right way. Yeah. Cause we see that there is a best practice and there’s some practices that have very little propensity to be successful. Yeah. So we need to increase that chance. We need to give people not only the automation tools, but also the methodology and the process tools so that they speak in the right way to the customers. SS: Absolutely. And as you mentioned, when these organizational changes happen, you often have to reshape the sales process. And I know that’s one of your key focuses. What challenges have you faced in optimizing sales processes and how have you overcome them? SL: Well, the first is to measure the measurement of the current status and the measurement of the target status, say in my career when they try to do the major change, so then people want to move fast. Yeah, okay So let’s move fast. Let’s change everything Let’s do it for the best But then when we try to analyze and to think on what will be a successful change. Then we need to define the target where we are today where we want to go in the future And that’s the number one thing. Then the second thing is really to get people involved into that change. And what I do usually throughout my career since my early management years, so I try to involve people, you know, so involving people into designing that process because they know about what’s going on in the field and then they know better what might work in order to do it best. Yeah. And then of course, well, if there are some good people with different experience also, but different attitude to the process. So they usually get some really good insights and really good advisors and me as a manager. So I usually facilitate that process, even though I might know the final answer. So, but I then guide people to the final answer, which is right so that they cannot escape them from deploying that and usage of those process, those ideas, those guidelines that they designed literally for themselves. SS: I think those are some great best practices now from your perspective, what is the strategic advantage of an enablement platform and helping organizations improve sales processes and really drive operational efficiency? SL: Some years ago, I heard that statement when the boss asked, what if we enable people teach them to do and they leave? And then the sales manager answers that question with another question. What if we don’t enable them? We don’t teach them and they stay. So that’s literally it. So that’s a key element of any successful sales organization to enable people, not only of the product knowledge, not only of the pricing tools, but the way you sell that, because nowadays this is not a challenge to sell something. It’s in fact, the challenge, the huge challenge is to buy, and if we analyze the customer processes, then we will find out that the process to buy something is by far more complicated than the process to sell something. And so we need now to understand and to guide our salespeople, to be the helper in that journey, for the customer to fulfill their buying intentions, to fulfill their buying process in the best way, because well, they buy it once, but we sell it like on a multiple times. And so we now. What are the intentions of the customer in the process of what will be the next step? How to justify this or that step, justify this or that number. Yeah, so all of those talking to people in numbers, talking to people in financials that requires a huge amount of routine operations and a huge amount of experience. So you need to be very comfortable to do that. Yeah, and in order to do that, you cannot do that on the fly. So you need to be enabled properly. You need to be enabled through the business cases. You need to be enabled through the rehearsals of the pitches. You need to be enabled through the templates. And of course, all of that, the combination of all those streams. So it becomes kind of the most important part of the, uh, in the company, because all the rest is just the outcomes on how good your people are trained, how good people are enabled if they’re not. There’s a very little chance that they form well and you build up the sustainable system of sales, a sustainable organization. And that’s why actually, so the first thing I did in Loadstone, when I joined the company, I asked, do we use any kind of database or knowledge base enablement system? Do we have any enabling processes for people who come to Lodestone, who come to, uh, to join our great team and, uh, make sure that we multiply our, Successful cases and best practices. And the answer was like, well, really, so yeah, we got some Google Docs, multiple slides for people trying to serve there. And, um, literally, so they, sometimes they just get drawn in those multiple artifacts and never, never came up. So that’s why we decided for a different approach. SS: Well, I love that you’re taking that and from a sales leader perspective, what role does leadership play in really fostering a culture of efficiency? SL: Let me give you an example. So for every single new employee that comes into a client facing role, I spend at least four and a half hours of my time for every single employee, not a group level, like on individual level on getting people through our operating model. How do we work on getting people known? What do we sell on getting people know? What are the major tools that I’m looking as a zero on the management? So means that We try to get our employees, our sales or client facing people, not only through the tools, but also through the cultural DNA. So what the company is, what are we doing? Well, why are we doing this? Why we don’t do that? Why we don’t push in the products? Why I didn’t need the contract without knowledge of the customers? Yeah. Because sometimes, well, there are people who come up to and say, Hey, here’s a contract. I just signed it. I said, do you have enough information about that customer? Well, who cares? Yeah, I just signed the contract. Well, I do care because, well, there’s a little chance to retain that customer in one or two years just because, well, we did the last job during the sales process. No, that’s not the DNA of the company, and we explained that right from the beginning of the employee journey in our company. SS: I love that. I love that’s part of the DNA. Now, you mentioned that automation has played a key role in helping you drive operational efficiency, such as your automated process for content governance. Can you tell us more about this process and how you’re automating sales workflows? SL: Well, the sales workflows are being automated with a solution from the company called Pipedrive. So that’s our sales automation tool. But everything aside of that, so it means the knowledge base and some parts of the customer interaction workflows, including learning and management, we are automating that with Highspot. So we’ve came across Highspot a couple of years ago. And so I found it really fascinating because I know in my previous companies we’ve had. Self enablement platforms. And that time I was like thinking, okay, so we don’t have enough resources to develop anything, which would be at least at the level of what I used to have in my previous companies. And then I came across Highspot and I was like, really? So can these guys do this and this and this? And then we came through a couple of use cases and then we understand, okay, so Highspot is a good, probably a good selection for us. And then when I understood that this is a great selection for us is that when we start talking money. Cause this was literally like the, the only provider who managed to convince me from the money standpoint, from financial standpoint, rather than the features and functions. So, and that’s still the example for, even for my salespeople, I still have that first proposal from Highspot saying, all right, so this is how the proposal should look like for, for our customers, because that speaks in terms of financials, mostly rather than features and functions. Then that impressed me a lot. And so I understood that company wise, we have pretty much similar DNA. Because we also talk to our customers, not for features and functions, but through the benefit that they may get from usage of our software. SS: Well, I have to say, you guys are doing amazing with streamlining those processes. And you’ve also driven really strong engagement from the sales team with 95 percent recurring usage and Highspot. What are some of your best practices for driving adoption of these investments that you’ve made in tools for your sales team? SL: Well, first of all, what I was impressed at the beginning is how I might use that for customer interactions. So the functionality of what they call the pitching and that transformed into creation of Digital Rooms. So that allows us to create a very personal lending. Content page for all customers. So whenever I want to share something with the customers, I make my people to share that through the pitching of the Highspot because I can definitely say whether this content was attractive or not, whether this content was read, how much time was spent in reading of that content? Because that’s very important for me. And I had a couple of times I even had some nasty customers had a situation when, you know, me personally, I was sending them the pitch and then I called them and said, hey, we spend a time, we prepared a proposal for you. Well, what do you say? He said, well, um, I read this proposal. I never saw that being opened and we don’t go, okay, all right. So I don’t want to spend the time with you just because, well, it doesn’t make sense for you. Okay. If it doesn’t make sense for you, it doesn’t make sense for us, but pitching is a very important part of custom interactions and that drove a lot of ROI for us. Because we now see that those customers who are mostly interacting with this landing pages, personal landing pages, they close the deals with us quite fast. So then the second one is, of course, for the internal knowledge base. So we found that those people who are most readers in Highspot, they are, surprise surprise, our top performers, yeah? Because in a lot of cases, you might face this situation when you just create some kind of piece of content and then you ask your people to read this, read this, listen to this, watch this, and then say, well, listen, well, I don’t have time, I have a custom meeting, I don’t have time, it’s just too long, can you just make it one page of me? And the bottom line, those who read most are the top performers. What a sequence, yeah? So that structure actually helps us to build up the sales guides to check what are the most useful pieces of information that we have in a high spot, also from to spend the time on developing or stop developing certain pieces of content at a time. SS: Absolutely. Absolutely. Those are amazing. And since implementing Highspot, do you have any business results that you can share or any wins that you can share? SL: Well, in fact, it’s really hard to measure the effectiveness of sales enablement rather than through the sales results. And so I know for sure that we increased our conversion rates by 110%. So that’s, that’s the official number from our Pipedrive. So just getting prepared for the session, I asked the CRM team, what’s the result or what do we have from numbers? And it told me, well, we have this and this and this. And I think, well, this is the highest award for me. To understand what’s the efficiency of Highspot in Loadstone. Yeah, 110 percent of onversion growth. And, we have today, I think, over 7, 000 artifacts or pieces of information that we uploaded. And we have a very, uh, a very big open rate for those pitches that, that our customers are getting from our client success managers. So that’s, we are delivering, I think while we are delivering at least month to month, that’s a different number, but this is around 200 pitches per month for us, which means that we have a lot of those personal interactive sessions. SS: Amazing. Amazing. Well, last question for you, I loved hearing about kind of your journey in terms of the rebrand and the sales process, see optimizations, but I’d love to understand as you’re kind of looking ahead as someone who is passionate about innovation and operational efficiency, how do you envision leveraging AI to further enhance your strategy for driving revenue growth? SL: Oh, that’s a buzzword today. Well, actually in content of knowledge management, AI should help people to have all information on the top of their fingers. Yeah. So whatever you ask, you need to have the concentrated answer. So, and that’s where AI can help to get known to new information. Because, well, I told you, we have 7, 000 pieces of information. How do you navigate through that? Yeah. That’s really challenging. And in fact, so so this is what we’re looking for is that a I will help us to get first of all, like a little pieces off and concentrated pieces of information to start your journey into specific area of knowledge and if you understand that, well, this specific thing is of value for me is a value for my customer, I need to get deeper. And so then depending on the depth, so AI should be helping people to get as much concentration of the information that they need in this specific level. Cause, uh, yeah, we do have this pieces of information, like 70 pages it sounds reference guide. Yeah. So then you cannot make people to read it nowadays. But then is this a valuable piece of information? Of course it is. Yes. And we have the reason why it’s 70 pages, not 50, not 30, not 20, not one. There’s a lot of valuable information, but I don’t need it at the same time all the time. Yeah. I need the piece of information which will be valuable for me right here. Right now. And so AI might be a very helpful tool in that. So that’s how I see that. So needless to say, for the international companies, you have a lot of pieces of information that should be translated into multiple languages. So that’s also the help of, uh, that’s with AI tools. You save huge amount of time now to do that completed. Yet you have like write visuals, write text, optimize text to the specific cultural languages and so on and so forth. That’s something that AI already helps us a lot, but then I see that we’re still in the beginning of the journey. SS: Yes. Yes. There’s a lot more that I think it’ll bring over the fullness of time, so I’m excited to see where it takes us. Serge, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time and your thoughts. SL: Thanks Shawnna! SS: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win Podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

What are the business techniques leaders can learn from a Chess Master CEO and how should they be thinking about the future of AI? In this episode, Rich sits down with Alan Trefler, a chess master and the Founder and CEO of Pegaystems, the Enterprise Transformation Company that helps organizations Build for Change® with enterprise AI decisioning and workflow automation. Alan has earned multiple patents and overseen the expansion of Pega from start-up to a $1.3+ billion, global, public company with about 6,000 employees. In this episode, he discusses the lessons he has taken from chess into business, and how he thinks companies should be strategically thinking about AI. ---------Key Quotes:“The chess master will look and identify a set of candidates. They don't just stare at the position and magically figure out what to do. They say, ‘hey, here are three, four, five things that appear to be credible alternatives' and then very methodically dig through them to figure out which might be the best one or what the holes are.”“In the four decades of Pega's existence, we've done five complete technology shifts….And every single one of those encompass the risk of doing something that was materially different. And there's always risk when you're doing something the first time, or you're doing something that is hard. Ultimately I think evaluating those risks is key, but you also need to think about the risk of not making a change.”“If you think of AI as an accelerant, as a way to, for example, tell you something about your business that you should make better and then you have the chance with your team to weigh in and don't necessarily do what the AI is telling you, but use the AI as a stimulus. Boy, you can use the AI as it exists now, and it can profoundly change the way a business works.”Practice Makes Profit: Increasing productivity and efficiency by scoring and categorizing your interactions. League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:  What are the keys to running a good strategy offsite meeting? Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:  Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, said, “When the rate of change inside a company is slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight. The only question is when.” Are you and your team making changes internally in your thinking, processes, resource allocation, and structure each and every quarter?--------Time stamps:(00:44) Deep Dive Interview with Alan Trefler (43:50 Practice Makes Profit (45:48) League of Strategic Minds (48:27) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage  ---------Links:Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/ Alan Trefler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alantrefler/Pegasystems: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pegasystems/Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwathRich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/Inc. Magazine's Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.comSign up for Rich's free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/[Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941

Have a great point of view to add? Send us a text with your thoughts!Uncover the keys to driving impact in a tech-driven world.Join Jon Busby and Minaz Tejani as they continue their chat with Cat Dutton, VP of Global Marketing at Pegasystems.The conversation explores how to drive real marketing impact through alignment with sales, setting meaningful KPIs, and fostering creativity even in tech-heavy environments.From initiatives like PegaFest to navigating event follow-ups, this episode highlights practical approaches to balancing innovation and measurable results.We also explore the potential of AI as a powerful tool for enhancing productivity and generating deeper insights.Tune in now!

Episode 60 explores the potential and challenges of human-centred AI with Alan Trefler, founder and CEO of Pegasystems, a global leader in CRM and business process automation (BPA). Under Alan's leadership, Pegasystems has become a powerhouse serving some of the world's largest organisations by streamlining operations and improving customer experiences through AI-driven platforms. Alan joins Uli and Markus to discuss what it really means to put people at the centre of AI, and how it is reshaping the relationship between technology and people. As organisations deepen their AI integration, the conversation explores how a human-centric approach can improve customer interactions, internal processes and employee satisfaction. The discussion goes beyond the buzzwords to address the real-world implications and responsibilities of implementing AI. Alan shares insights into how his company is using AI to create meaningful connections in business, focusing on supporting and empowering people rather than replacing them. Practical examples will show how AI projects are reshaping industries and customer engagement, with ethical considerations in mind. More information can be found here: - Website of Pegasystems: https://www.pega.com - Alan's profile on Pegasystems website: https://www.pega.com/about/leadership/alan-trefler - Recommended reading „Generative AI vs. predictive AI: What's the difference?“ (IBM): https://www.ibm.com/blog/generative-ai-vs-predictive-ai-whats-the-difference/ - Literature recommendation „Practical Process Automation: Orchestration and Integration in Microservices and Cloud Native Architectures“ by von Bernd Ruecker https://amzn.eu/d/he8HY8H - Literature recommendation „Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures“ by Mathias Weske https://amzn.eu/d/j0fqmat Your feedback on the episode and suggestions for topics and guests are very welcome! Connect and discuss with us: - Alan Trefler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alantrefler/ - Ulrich Irnich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrichirnich/ - Markus Kuckertz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markuskuckertz/ Contributors - Hosts: Ulrich Irnich & Markus Kuckertz // Editorial: Marcus Pawlik © Digital Pacemaker Podcast 2024

Have a great point of view to add? Send us a text with your thoughts!Cat Dutton, VP of Global Growth Marketing at Pegasystems takes centre stage to share her wealth of experience, including leadership roles at major B2B tech companies like Fujitsu and Atos. The first part of two episodes, this conversation dives into Cat's background and Pega's strategic approach to growth marketing, by blending ABM and demand generation.Tune in now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Why a judge's decision to block Tapestry's more than $8 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings could send chills throughout the M&A space.  Plus, Franklin Mutual Advisers identifies sectors of the commercial real estate market where investors could find opportunity.  And, the CEO of software maker Pegasystems discusses the company's push further into generative AI.

Ken Stillwell, COO & CFO of Pegasystems (PEGA), joins to discuss the recent quarterly report. Annual contract value has been accelerating, especially in their cloud offerings, he says. He talks about high-profile clients, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Accenture (ACN), and Morgan Stanley (MS). ======== Schwab Network ======== Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6D Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribe Download the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185 Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7 Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watch Watch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-explore Watch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/ Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetwork Follow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetwork Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

In some ways, compliance has become a race against time. Financial institutions need to move quickly in the face of fragmented regulations, siloed decision-making, and overwhelming amounts of data. No one knows this better than Chiara Gelmini and Michael Baldauf, two directors at PegaSystems. Chiara and Michael have spent years helping financial institutions tackle these challenges, and in this episode they share how simplifying the process could change the game in compliance.KYC, AML processes, and financial crime investigations have become more complicated than ever. As regulations evolve across different jurisdictions and the need for speed grows, the pressure to transform compliance practices is at an all-time high. Chiara and Michael discuss these problems and explain why real-time optimization and AI are essential in staying ahead of today's evolving risks.About the Show:BCG on Compliance is a podcast from Boston Consulting Group that explores today's most pressing criminal trends and how compliance experts are adapting to counter those threats.As financial crimes become increasingly sophisticated, compliance can no longer be just a checkbox. It's emerged as a transformative force in every industry, reshaping practices in ethics, risk management, money laundering and cyber security. On BCG on Compliance, we dive deep into the extraordinary minds that are driving that change.Hosted by Hanjo Seibert, a leading expert in compliance, anti-financial crime and fraud, BCG on Compliance features interviews with heavy-hitters propelling compliance to the forefront of the industry. From crime prevention gurus to ethics champions, we'll ask provocative questions and bring you rich insights from the global players shaping the future of compliance, all in a dynamic and compact 20-minute episode.Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the field, BCG on Compliance is your quick, comprehensive guide. Join us as we explore the profound ways compliance is altering industries around the globe. And connect with us at bcgoncompliance@bcg.com New episodes are released every other week.Episode Links:Michael Baldauf LinkedInChiara Gelmini LinkedInPega WebsiteHanjo Seibert LinkedInBCG LinkedInBCG website

Minter Dialogue with Lidewij Niezink and Peter van der Putten Lidewij Niezink's Background and Current Work - Lidewij shares her extensive experience in empathy within psychology. - Recent focus on integrating AI into applied psychology at Hanze University. - Exploration of using AI, particularly chatbots, in student projects to enhance their studies and professional development. Peter van der Putten's Background and Current Work - Peter discusses his long-standing fascination with AI since 1989. - His dual role as an assistant professor at Leiden University and director of the AI lab at Pegasystems. - Emphasis on AI's role in understanding human intelligence and emotions, and its application in customer interactions. Intersection of Empathy and AI - Minter highlights the guests' converging paths: Peter from AI to empathy, and Lidewij from empathy to AI. - Discussion on the potential of AI to assist in therapeutic contexts due to a shortage of human therapists. Defining Human Uniqueness - Peter and Lidewij debate what makes humans unique, considering empathy, consciousness, and irrationality. - Peter suggests that our projection of human qualities onto AI and other entities is a significant aspect of our interaction with technology. Empathy in AI and Human Interaction - Lidewij emphasises the importance of holding experiential space in empathy, avoiding projection and judgement. - Peter discusses the moral expectations in empathetic interactions, whether human or AI-driven. Challenges and Opportunities in AI Empathy - The guests explore the complexities of encoding empathy into AI, including the need for transparency and understanding the end goals of AI applications. - Peter shares insights from his research on AI's ability to understand and replicate human emotions and intentions. Practical Applications and Ethical Considerations - Lidewij and Peter discuss the practical applications of AI in customer service and the importance of aligning AI behaviour with company values. - The conversation touches on the ethical implications of AI empathy, including the need for transparency and the potential for AI to hold humans to higher standards. Conclusion and Call to Action - Lidewij invites collaboration on developing empathic AI applications, emphasising transparency and ethical considerations. - Peter highlights the importance of starting with a human perspective in AI development and shares resources for responsible AI use. Contact Information - Lidewij Niezink can be reached through her website, empathicintervision.com, and LinkedIn. - Peter van der Putten's work can be explored further through Pega.AI and his academic research, accessible via a simple Google search.

Join me, Neil, on this episode of Tech Talks Daily, where I sit down with Russ Thornton, Chief Technology Officer at Shawbrook Bank. Russ is at the forefront of Shawbrook Bank's ambitious digital transformation journey, leveraging AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation from Pegasystems to revolutionize their operations. Under Russ's leadership, Shawbrook Bank has streamlined their loan processing time by an impressive 75%, while freeing up underwriters from 1,500 hours of manual work each month, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience. Recently, they've embarked on phase two of their transformation, deploying Pega Platform™ to overhaul their buy-to-let mortgage underwriting process, cutting processing times in half and tripling underwriter productivity. In our conversation, Russ shares insights into his career journey and how it shapes his decisions as CTO. We explore the pivotal milestones Shawbrook Bank has achieved with these automation projects, and what lies ahead on their transformative roadmap. Russ also reflects on the lessons learned from these initiatives and provides a glimpse into future projects that will further elevate Shawbrook Bank's digital capabilities. Tune in to learn how Shawbrook Bank is harnessing technology to drive efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and pave the way for continued innovation in banking. What are your thoughts on the role of AI and automation in shaping the future of financial services? Share your thoughts with us after listening to this insightful episode.

This week, our host Ian Truscott and Jeff Clark, our resident strategy advisor and former Forrester Research Director, are joined by five-time CMO and marketing mentor Grant Johnson, to discuss his Marketing Performance Index.  It's Grant's fourth time on the show, the last time being episode 144. He is a serial CMO who has held the top marketing job in several B2B companies, including Bill Trust, Enburse, Kofax, Pegasystems, SDL, and Cylance. You can learn more about Grant's career from when he first appeared on the show in episode 32. In this conversation, Ian, Jeff, and Grant discuss Grant's latest project, The Marketing Performance Index™. A model for marketing measurement that comprises of 24 key performance metrics across three components: Market Presence, Brand Strength, and Pipeline Health. They discuss why Grant chose these areas, step through them, and the key metrics marketers need to focus on in each. Enjoy! — The people: // Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Threads // Jeff Clark on LinkedIn // Grant Johnson on LinkedIn Mentioned in this week's episode: // Grant''s website CMO Mentor // The Marketing Performance Index™  // Grant's last appearance on episode 144 // CMO Huddles Rockstar CMO: // Monday Mojo - our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter // The Beat Newsletter that we send every Sunday // Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn // Previous episodes and all the show notes: Rockstar CMO FM. Track List: // Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a Creative Commons license // We'll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media on YouTube // Living By Numbers by New Musik on YouTube Listen on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Sobel discusses three key topics related to AI and its impact on various sectors. The episode begins by highlighting Deloitte's AI report, which emphasizes the importance of talent strategy in addressing potential job displacement caused by AI advancements. The report suggests that generative AI will redefine jobs rather than replace them, underlining the need for upskilling and reskilling among employees to prepare for the evolving landscape.The episode also delves into positive AI stories, such as the Biden administration showcasing AI's potential in government services and the effectiveness of OpenAI's GPT-4 in analyzing financial statements. However, it also touches on negative instances, like McDonald's removing AI-powered order taker technology due to reliability issues and the high rate of false outputs in AI legal research tools. These examples underscore the importance of reliability, accuracy, and transparency in AI applications.Furthermore, the episode discusses the challenges faced by business leaders in understanding and implementing generative AI, as highlighted in research by Pegasystems. IT professionals express a strong desire to adopt AI technology but cite concerns about data quality, infrastructure readiness, and security. The need for government regulation, ethics, data privacy, and compliance policies is emphasized to ensure successful and secure AI adoption.In conclusion, the episode emphasizes the importance of human-AI collaboration, with AI complementing rather than replacing human expertise. It underscores the need for IT service providers to prioritize thorough testing, continuous improvement, and addressing foundational issues like data quality and infrastructure readiness to facilitate successful AI adoption. Three things to know today00:00 Deloitte AI Report: Generative AI to Redefine Jobs, Highlights Importance of Talent Strategy03:26 AI in Government Services: Biden Administration Highlights Benefits in Education, Healthcare, and More05:31 McDonald's Pulls AI Order Takers from Drive-Thrus After Viral Failures Highlight Reliability Issues  Supported by:  https://timezest.com/mspradio/https://www.huntress.com/mspradio/  All our Sponsors:   https://businessof.tech/sponsors/  Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessoftech.bsky.social

On this episode of the Six Five On the Road, host Keith Kirkpatrick is joined by Pega's Matt Healy, Director of Product Marketing, Intelligent Automation for a conversation on how Pega's innovative approach to AI and application development is reshaping industries. Their discussion covers: The evolving role of AI in application development How Pega's Blueprint technology stands out in the market Real-world impacts of Pega's intelligent automation The future vision of AI and automation at Pega Challenges and opportunities in implementing AI solutions in businesses   #Pegaworld #Pegasystems #Pega #AI #BlueprintTechnology #appdevelopment #TheSixFiveOnTheRoad #KeithKirkpatrick #MattHealy #technology

In this episode of Six Five On the Road, host Keith Kirkpatrick welcomes Peter van der Putten, Lead Scientist & Director of Pega's AI Lab at Pegasystems for a conversation about generative AI in the enterprise.  Their discussion covers: The current state of generative AI  Common use cases for the technology, pitfalls and hurdles to avoid when deploying generative AI  A preview of the topics he and others will be discussing at PegaWorld iNspire 2024  

Our big interview with PegaSystems CEO Alan Trefler (PEGA). Also Rivian Automotive (RIVN) takes a fast walk down a short pier, Arista Networks (ANET) targets Cisco (CSCO), and ARM Holdings (ARM) leans on mobile as it plots for #AI. https://linktr.ee/drilldownpod Futurum's The Drill Down with Cory Johnson offers a weekly look at the business stories behind stocks on the move.  It's business news for business people. Every episode of  The Drill Down offers a pithy look at the week's most important business stories and takes a good hard look at four public companies in the news. The Drill Down is a production of The Futurum Group, a leading global technology advisory, media and research firm. Futurum's media platform spans across multiple OTT and VOD channels that have surpassed 9 million views and over 421 million digital and social media impressions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's interview is with Don Schuerman, the CTO and Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Pegasystems. Don joins me today to talk about the upcoming PegaWorld iNspire 2024 (PegaWorld is taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from June 9th to the 11th and there is a money back guarantee!), what he's most looking forward to at the event, the good and bad about the tech offerings out there in the market right now, and why it's the “boring” use of AI that really will help enterprises work smarter and harder amongst other things. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Episode 500: Some reflections on the last 13 years – and is number 501 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

As AI initiatives gather steam, the public and private sectors are assessing the level of investment necessary to unlock the value of the new technology. It's clear that large funds and a strategic approach will be necessary to bring the workforce along with employers.The UK government has announced several billion pounds in collective funding for AI projects and infrastructure deemed necessary for expanding the UK's AI sector. As governments around the world look to unlock AI success of their own, however, is the UK's current approach enough?In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Alex Case, senior director and government industry principal EMEA at Pegasystems to discuss how well the UK is positioning itself to take advantage of the growing AI market.Read more:UK competition watchdog says it has “very real concerns” over big tech AI dominanceUK AI regulation: Lawmakers reportedly eye a tighter approachMicrosoft believes the UK can become a "global leader in AI", but regulation needs fixingInvestment in UK AI firms plummeted last year despite the hype surrounding generative AIThe UK government's AI goals are being stifled by ‘apocalyptic concerns' over safety

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomes Peter van der Putten, Lead Scientist & Director of Pega's AI Lab at Pegasystems for a conversation on AI in 2024, including insights on ethics, governance and the hype around generative AI.  Their discussion covers: The concept of right-brain AI versus left-brain AI and what that means in terms of strategy and use cases The balance between the two that businesses need to achieve success Top AI trends that Peter thinks we'll see more of in 2024 Whether the hype around generative AI is overshadowing the actual business value of the technology How ethics will continue to be a part of the conversation and Pega's approach to ethical AI  

In this episode of Enterprising Insights, host Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director, Enterprise Applications, at The Futurum Group, discusses the topic of tech stack sprawl, focusing specifically on the proliferation of multiple enterprise applications within an organization. He covers the conditions that lead to sprawl, the risks and drawbacks of acquiring and implementing a wide range of applications, and highlights the offerings from vendors that are designed to reduce or eliminate sprawl. He also covers some recent news and newsmakers in the customer experience software market. Finally, he'll close out the show with the “Rant or Rave” segment, where he picks one item in the market, and he'll either champion or criticize it.

In this episode, we are joined by Geeta Wilson, Chief Technology Officer of Whole Health, Advocacy and Provider Platforms at Elevance Health, and Christopher Patterson, VP of Product Strategy Customer Service & Sales at Pegasystems, to discuss Elevance Health's mission and strategy, how they center care around the individual, how they use technology for a competitive advantage and more. This episode is sponsored by Pegasystems. 

In this episode, we are joined by Geeta Wilson, Chief Technology Officer of Whole Health, Advocacy and Provider Platforms at Elevance Health, and Christopher Patterson, VP of Product Strategy Customer Service & Sales at Pegasystems, to discuss Elevance Health's mission and strategy, how they center care around the individual, how they use technology for a competitive advantage and more.This episode is sponsored by Pegasystems.

Today's healthcare consumers expect a seamless experience free of confusion, frustration and delays -- barriers that affect not only the patient, but payer and provider employees as well. In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Robert Connely III, healthcare market leader at Pegasystems, and Jennifer Zellinger, vice president of product development at enGen, share how they proactively engage patients and members across all channels of communication.  They also discuss the potential for adaptive AI to help create customer-centric experiences with fewer operational silos, better care outcomes and lower costs. 

In this episode of Enterprising Insights, Mark Beccue, Research Director, AI, with The Futurum Group joins host Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director, Enterprise Applications, at The Futurum Group, for a conversation about the use of generative AI within enterprise platforms and applications. We'll also cover some recent news and newsmakers in the enterprise software market. Finally, we'll close out the show with our “Rant or Rave” segment, where we pick one item in the market, and we'll either champion or criticize it.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, I am joined by Pegasystems' CTO, Don Schuerman, for a conversation on what the autonomous enterprise looks like and why it matters for today's businesses.   Our discussion covers: The rise of enterprise AI, and the convergence of technology and industry How Pega has focused on the autonomous enterprise The benefits of a solution that can help to automate workflows and the opportunity for organizations using AI and automation to increasingly become self-optimizing How using AI can transform marketing approaches for personalized customer engagement What Pega is doing to drive growth for their customers, helping them to stay ahead with the skills and technology stack that enables transformation Watch the video below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you never miss an episode.

Pegasystems Inc., Q2 2023 Earnings Call, Jul 27, 2023

Patient advocacy is a powerful way to navigate the healthcare maze. In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, we feature Pegasystems' Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kikelomo “Dayo” Oshunkentan, who talks about the power of patient advocacy and navigating complex healthcare systems. She stresses the importance of patient advocacy, especially for individuals dealing with serious illnesses or injuries. Patient advocacy involves promoting and protecting patients' rights to receive the best care possible. Dr. Dayo explains how patients can actively participate in their healthcare decisions by becoming their own advocates, ensuring their needs and concerns are addressed. Dr. Dayo and Christopher delve into the patient advocate role in effectively communicating their concerns and well-being to healthcare providers. She defines a patient advocate as someone with medical knowledge and understanding of the healthcare system, allowing them to navigate it and effectively convey patients' needs. They both highlight the importance of effective communication between patients and healthcare providers, emphasizing the need for patients to be knowledgeable and empowered. Dr. Dayo and Christopher also discuss seeking second opinions, understanding patient rights, and utilizing technology for better access to care. Patients must be aware of their worth and right to receive quality care. Therefore, the conversation touches on patients' rights and the importance of self-advocacy. They also address the challenges of limited physician capacity for in-depth conversations and suggest using emerging technologies to summarize patients' diverse information creating more effective communication with providers. Finally, they recognize the efforts of patient advocates and the importance of maintaining records and voicing concerns, escalating them when necessary to ensure appropriate care. Tune in to learn more about patient advocacy and how to approach it effectively! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/christopher-kunney/support

Today's interview is with Don Schuerman, the CTO and Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Pegasystems. Don joins me today to talk about the upcoming PegaWorld iNspire, how excited Don feels about being back face-to-face again after four years, celebrating Pega's 40th anniversary and 40 years of innovation, the autonomous enterprise, what that means and what it requires as well as generative AI and where he thinks it's likely to have the most impact in the near term. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The promise of generative AI in customer care and the challenges ahead – Interview with Ryan McDonald, Chief Scientist at ASAPP – and is number 465 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast for the coming month. We are fast approaching PegaWorld iNspire which is Pega's annual conference that will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from June 11th to 13th. This year it will be an in-person event, for the first time in four years, and will bring together experts and industry leaders to demystify technologies like generative AI and intelligent automation They will also illustrate how enterprises can practically apply these technologies to turbocharge productivity, improve low-code app development, and optimize customer engagement. Check out PegaWorld.com to find out more and, hopefully, I'll see you there

In today's episode of Tech Talks Daily, we explore the unconventional path to business success with our special guest, Don Schuerman, Chief Technology Officer of Pegasystems, a global US software firm with major clients such as Lloyds Banking Group, Booking.com, and the UK government. Don shares how his passion for musical improv theatre has helped him rise to the top and transformed how he and his colleagues make better business decisions. In this fascinating conversation, Don discusses the business value of improv as a hobby and how theatrical improvisation skills can sharpen curiosity and collaboration capabilities crucial for success in today's fast-paced business environment. He also delves into OpenAI's recent introduction of ChatGPT and the challenges organizations face when deciding where to begin their automation and AI implementation journey. Don further reveals how embracing improv can help business professionals develop a mindset that accepts constant change as exciting and interesting, fostering a perpetual openness to new ideas. Join us for this enlightening episode as we uncover the power of improvisation in business and technology and learn how a unique skill set can make a difference in achieving success.

Kate Parente (Chief People Officer, Pega) joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about making the office a magnet, building a strong relationship with your CEO, and the power of storytelling as a people leader. Timestamps:   (1:22) Good news stories (13:00) This is her first Chief People Officer role (17:00) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Pega (20:00) The paradigm shift that's happening at work (22:00) There's no one size fits all approach to work (25:00) How the people team is structured at Pega (28:28) Making the office a magnet, not a mandate (31:00) Piloting “Connection Weeks” at Pega (32:46) What makes the Pega people team unique (37:18) The CEO CHRO relationship (40:46) Figuring out what people are thinking and feeling at this moment (42:00) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Marketing Metrics: Leverage Analytics and Data to Optimize Marketing Strategies by Christina Inge About the Book: Stop feeling overwhelmed by data and start using it to its full potential, to create an agile and forward-looking strategy that enables customer-centric marketing builds your brand, and develops product strategies. Many brands talk about creating a marketing strategy powered by data, analytics, and metrics. Yet too often they're still overwhelmed by data, or unsure of how to use it to create a flexible and future-focused strategy that doesn't just validate what's happened in the past.  Marketing Metrics takes readers through all the stages of implementing a data-first strategy, from early-stage adoption to more advanced customization.  Featuring examples from a range of organizations including Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz, it shows how to create a strategy that leverages consumer data for customer-centric marketing, establishes the ROI of channels and campaigns, strengthens brands, and creates data-driven product strategies. Covering the range of new global laws that impact consumer privacy and data collection and usage, Marketing Metrics shows how to use data in a non-invasive, secure, and ethical way.  Also showing how to communicate critical data to the right stakeholders and the skills of the data-savvy marketer, this is a clear and jargon-free guide to creating a future-focused and data-powered marketing strategy. About the Author: Christina Inge is the founder and CEO of Thoughtlight, a tech consulting company that specializes in digital marketing and analytics strategies. She has worked with well-established brands such as Nissan, The Smithsonian, and Pegasystems, as well as a range of startups and nonprofits. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, she is a member of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and has served on the board of the American Marketing Association Boston. An instructor at Harvard University Extension School and Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, she is a frequent and sought-after speaker and has been published in numerous industry publications And, interesting fact – she is also a quilt maker! Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview... https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/marketing-metrics-christina-inge 

Every week on Demand Gen Visionaries we sit down with marketing leaders from some of the world's largest and fastest-growing companies to uncover the demand gen strategies that have been fundamental to their skyrocketing success. In each episode, we ask our marketing-leader guests which three areas of investment are most important to their demand gen initiatives. Tune into this special mini-series to hear the budget items our CMO guests can't live without!Find parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, & eightEpisode Timestamps: *(02:00) Kevin Sellers, CMO, Ping Identity*(04:00) Melissa Sargeant, CMO, AlphaSense*(04:30) Esther Flammer, CMO, Wrike*(06:30) Liam Barnes, Head of Demand Gen, Bionic*(08:00) Eric Quanstrom, CMO, CIENCE Technologies*(11:50) Don Schuerman, CTO & VP of Product Marketing, Pegasystems*(14:00) Michelle Huff, CMO, UserTesting*(16:00) Mandy McEwen, Founder, Mod Girl Marketing*(17:50) Madhukar Kumar, CMO, SingleStoreKey TakeawaysSimplification and focus on a single message or platform is a priority for many CMOs in 2023.Several CMOs say they believe in-person events can be a valuable way to connect clients and a crucial element of their marketing strategy. CMOs cited the web channel as a significant contributor to the pipeline over the years.Quotes“Rather than having multiple go-to-market kinds of motions, we're going to be singular-focused which will give us the ability to invest at the level we need to, but also keeps us simplified and focused on a single message or single platform.” - Kevin Sellers, CMO, Ping Identity“The website, the content team, and paid… those three key areas are what we're developing and focusing in on 2023 to bring new people into the pipeline.” - Melissa Sargeant, CMO, AlphaSense“Our constant need to optimize channels and to look at every single message and keyword—optimizations that we can potentially do within those inbound digital channels is a huge focus for us." - Esther Flammer, CMO, Wrike"Our field budget which is working with vendors… are the lowest volume but the highest converting for us because it's basically just ABM and sales." - Liam Barnes, Head of Demand Gen, Bionic“Some uncuttables are a lot of the positions that we've achieved on directories where our own clients are reviewing us and relating their firsthand experience of doing business with us to the rest of the world." - Eric Quanstrom, CMO, CIENCE Technologies“I think one of the best things I can do as a marketer is connecting one client with another client so that they can inform each other… some of that can only happen at a big in-person event where we can sit down in a tech pavilion or an expo and see the technology, but also talk to each other about how it can be used." - Don Schuerman, CTO & VP of Product Marketing, Pegasystems“​​Our web channel is definitely a huge contributor to pipeline over the years." - Michelle Huff, CMO, UserTesting“If you are in B2B, your target market is on LinkedIn and it's only getting bigger and bigger...if you're not on LinkedIn and you're in B2B, you're missing out on a massive opportunity." - Mandy McEwen, Founder, Mod Girl Marketing“Our first unctuabble item is events and hybrid events too–webinars and such. There are ways to do that in a very economic fashion." - Madhukar Kumar, CMO, SingleStoreSponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.LinksFollow Ian on TwitterConnect with Ian on LinkedInCaspian Studios

Jim talks with Dan Shipper about practical uses of GPT-3 and ChatGPT at the personal scale. They discuss how Dan started playing with these tools, the feeling of new generative AIs, GPT-3 vs ChatGPT, writing a screenplay using ChatGPT, using GPT-3 to analyze journal entries, circumventing the context window limitation, GPT-3 as a journaling tool, how ChatGPT does embedding, the coming market for chatbot personas, the value of guardrails, the monetary cost of using GPT-3, solving the organizational problems of note-taking, Stephen Reid's knowledge-graph of this podcast, the invention of the graphic web browser & the frozen accidents of HTTP & HTML, meta-prompts & data pipelines, how Yohei Nakajima eliminates repetitive tasks using LLMs, and much more. Episode Transcript Chain of Thought (Every) "Can GPT-3 Explain My Past and Tell My Future?", by Dan Shipper GPT Index LangChain "Chat GPT 'DAN' (and other 'Jailbreaks')" Character.AI JRS Knowledgegraph, by Stephen Reid Dan Shipper is the CEO and co-founder of Every, a daily newsletter on business, AI, and personal development read by almost 75,000 founders, operators, and investors. Previously he was the CEO and co-founder of Firefly, an enterprise software company that he sold to Pegasystems. He writes a weekly at column at Every called Chain of Thought where he covers AI, tools for thought, and the psychology of work.

In a competitive digital world where attention spans are short and businesses are looking to build relationships with their customers, high-touch strategies have been shown to increase loyalty and lifetime value. In this episode, we talk with Don Schuerman, the CTO & VP of Product Marketing at Pegasystems—an organization that has built relationships with the world's leading brands—so that you can learn tips from the experts and apply it to your strategy too. Plus, you'll hear insights into digital marketing strategies that activate vs. generate excess content, and much more.Key TakeawaysTrue customer intimacy is hugely important and can only be achieved through frequent interactions. Events are back but people are no longer focused on entertaining experiences. Instead, they're looking for effective outcomes in the form of learning, training, or collaboration.Measuring engagement with a holistic lens reminds marketers that it's not about getting clicks on the website—it's getting converts.Quotes:“That [high] level of customer intimacy and understanding is essential, especially from marketers in technology and enterprise technology where it's not enough to have a strong message and vision. You also have to continuously make that relevant to your customer and audience.”“Measuring engagement across a holistic lens helps me as a marketer remind our broader team that it's not just our job to get a bunch of people clicking on the website—it's actually getting that website to convert.”“Most organizations generate plenty of content—probably too much content. Really, what you really have is an activation problem. Can you effectively activate the content?”Episode Timestamps:* (01:41) - Don's unique role as CTO & VP of Product Marketing at Pegasystems * (06:50) - Segment: The Trust Tree* (12:09) - Looking at engagement holistically * (19:40) - Segment: The Playbook* (28:24) - Segment: The Dust Up* (31:23) - Segment: Quick HitsSponsor:Demand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.LinksConnect with Ian on LinkedInFollow Don on LinkedInLearn more about PegasystemsLearn more about Caspian Studios

Apple (AAPL) dips below $2T Market Cap. Tesla (TSLA) jolts investors again. Rivian (RIVN) produced 10K vehicles in Q4, comes up short of full-year target. Victoria's Secret (VSCO) stock sinks on executive exit.

WANT THE FULL EPISODE? Check out yesterday's episode, or download it directly using this link: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/52089767/download.mp3“Decision-making is a taught skill. Decisiveness adds efficiency and speed to the process.” – Rich Diviney Rich Diviney, retired Navy SEAL commander, joins Decidedly to discuss key attributes the most impactful Navy SEALS use to improve their decision-making.KEY TOPICS- Developing attributes that influence your decisions- Autonomic arousal, amygdala hijacking, and the nervous system- Making microdecisions- Utilizing compartmentalization to make faster decisionsCONNECT WITH USDecidedlypodcast.comInstagram: @decidedlypodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/decidedlypodcastShawn's Instagram: @shawn_d_smith Sanger's Instagram: @sangersmith MAKING A FINANCIAL DECISION?At Decidedly Wealth Management, we focus on decision-making as the foundational element of success, in our effort to empower families to purposefully apply their wealth to fulfill their values and build a thriving legacy.LEARN MORE: www.decidedlywealth.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/decidedlywealth/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DecidedlyWealth/Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly decision-making tips: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001aeU_pPBHJPNJWJBdVbaci6bjGIuEJurH12xHBWDEVT_NxyCadMd7wLSZjcEZglkSjDjehuIbTHD8nABOIdV69ctfYpSzg24RCIytetBUrlIPPKgaGzjGZ8DkM0Wp1LMjbErcYUur7PbZGjeVo4gyXlz821AoJGZRJoin us every Wednesday for more strategies to DEFEAT bad decision-making - one episode at a time!MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODERich's book, “The Attributes 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance”: https://www.amazon.com/Attributes-Hidden-Drivers-Optimal-Performance/dp/0593133943/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+attribute&qid=1607956573&sr=8-1Draper Kauffman: https://sofrep.com/news/the-father-of-navy-udtseal-teams-draper-kauffman-part-1/CONNECT WITH RICH DIVINEYInstagram: @rich_diviney & @theattributesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RichDiviney/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richdiviney/Twitter: @richdivineyRich's book, “The Attributes 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance”: https://www.amazon.com/Attributes-Hidden-Drivers-Optimal-Performance/dp/0593133943/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+attribute&qid=1607956573&sr=8-1Rich Diviney & Simon Sinek: https://simonsinek.com/optimists/rich-diviney/Website: www.theattributes.comRich Diviney is a bestselling author, leadership and human performance expert, and retired Navy SEAL commander. During his career in the US Military, spanning more than twenty years, Rich has completed more than thirteen deployments overseas.As the officer tasked with training others for specialized command, Diviney was intimately involved in an extremely specialized SEAL selection process, paring down a group of exceptional candidates to a small cadre of the most elite optimal performers. He also spearheaded the creation of a directorate, employing a strong emphasis on physical, mental, and emotional discipline to optimize the team's performance. Diviney led his small team to create the first-ever “Mind Gym” that helped special operators train their brains to perform faster, longer, and better in all environments—especially high-stress ones.Since retiring from the Navy, Diviney has worked as a speaker, facilitator, and consultant at the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute and Simon Sinek Inc. In 2020, Diviney founded The Attributes Inc., where he currently serves as the corporation's CEO.Currently, Rich speaks and consults on leadership strategies, assessment and selection processes, and optimal performance techniques. He has worked with thousands of businesses, athletic organizations, and military leaders. His past clients include American Airlines, Meijer Inc., the San Francisco 49ers, Pegasystems, Zoom, and Deloitte.In January 2021, Rich released his first book: The Attributes. 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance.

“Decision-making is a taught skill. Decisiveness adds efficiency and speed to the process.” – Rich Diviney Rich Diviney, retired Navy SEAL commander, joins Decidedly to discuss key attributes the most impactful Navy SEALS use to improve their decision-making.KEY TOPICS- Developing attributes that influence your decisions- Autonomic arousal, amygdala hijacking, and the nervous system- Making microdecisions- Utilizing compartmentalization to make faster decisionsDON'T HAVE TIME FOR THE FULL EPISODE? Check out the 15-minute highlight clip by going to tomorrow's episode, or download it directly with this link: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/52089890/download.mp3CONNECT WITH USDecidedlypodcast.comInstagram: @decidedlypodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/decidedlypodcastShawn's Instagram: @shawn_d_smith Sanger's Instagram: @sangersmith MAKING A FINANCIAL DECISION?At Decidedly Wealth Management, we focus on decision-making as the foundational element of success, in our effort to empower families to purposefully apply their wealth to fulfill their values and build a thriving legacy.LEARN MORE: www.decidedlywealth.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/decidedlywealth/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DecidedlyWealth/Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly decision-making tips: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001aeU_pPBHJPNJWJBdVbaci6bjGIuEJurH12xHBWDEVT_NxyCadMd7wLSZjcEZglkSjDjehuIbTHD8nABOIdV69ctfYpSzg24RCIytetBUrlIPPKgaGzjGZ8DkM0Wp1LMjbErcYUur7PbZGjeVo4gyXlz821AoJGZRJoin us every Wednesday for more strategies to DEFEAT bad decision-making - one episode at a time!MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODERich's book, “The Attributes 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance”: https://www.amazon.com/Attributes-Hidden-Drivers-Optimal-Performance/dp/0593133943/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+attribute&qid=1607956573&sr=8-1Draper Kauffman: https://sofrep.com/news/the-father-of-navy-udtseal-teams-draper-kauffman-part-1/CONNECT WITH RICH DIVINEYInstagram: @rich_diviney & @theattributesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RichDiviney/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richdiviney/Twitter: @richdivineyRich's book, “The Attributes 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance”: https://www.amazon.com/Attributes-Hidden-Drivers-Optimal-Performance/dp/0593133943/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+attribute&qid=1607956573&sr=8-1Rich Diviney & Simon Sinek: https://simonsinek.com/optimists/rich-diviney/Website: www.theattributes.comRich Diviney is a bestselling author, leadership and human performance expert, and retired Navy SEAL commander. During his career in the US Military, spanning more than twenty years, Rich has completed more than thirteen deployments overseas.As the officer tasked with training others for specialized command, Diviney was intimately involved in an extremely specialized SEAL selection process, paring down a group of exceptional candidates to a small cadre of the most elite optimal performers. He also spearheaded the creation of a directorate, employing a strong emphasis on physical, mental, and emotional discipline to optimize the team's performance. Diviney led his small team to create the first-ever “Mind Gym” that helped special operators train their brains to perform faster, longer, and better in all environments—especially high-stress ones.Since retiring from the Navy, Diviney has worked as a speaker, facilitator, and consultant at the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute and Simon Sinek Inc. In 2020, Diviney founded The Attributes Inc., where he currently serves as the corporation's CEO.Currently, Rich speaks and consults on leadership strategies, assessment and selection processes, and optimal performance techniques. He has worked with thousands of businesses, athletic organizations, and military leaders. His past clients include American Airlines, Meijer Inc., the San Francisco 49ers, Pegasystems, Zoom, and Deloitte.In January 2021, Rich released his first book: The Attributes. 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance.

Jim and Jeff talk with Abhay Thomas, Director of Application Development at Pega, and Vijay Amanchi, Senior Manager of Application Development at Pega, about the multi-year customer and enterprise IAM journey their organization has been on. Connect with Abhay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhaythomas/ Connect with Vijay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-amanchi/ Pegasystems: https://www.pega.com/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show at www.IdentityAtTheCenter.com, follow @IDACPodcast on Twitter, and check out our live streams at www.idac.live

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by Matt Nolan, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Decision Sciences, to talk about one of my favorite topics: data, analytics, and how you can use them to provide customers with top notch experiences. We also explore Pega's latest product release: Pega Customer Data Connectors — which I see as a definite gamechanger for organizations in every industry. For consumers, whether B2B or B2C, experiences can be the difference between a closed sale and a lost revenue opportunity, and sometimes even the difference between a loyal customer who touts a brand to friends and family and one who spreads a negative word because of a less than stellar customer experience. In a word, customer experiences are everything. This is not new news for many organizations, which is why customer data platforms (CDPs) are quickly becoming a ‘must have' part of the MarTech stack. They help organizations manage massive amounts of customer data from a number of different channels, with the goal of providing insights to deliver better customer experiences. But CDPs alone aren't a holy grail and unfortunately in many instances they can be siloed and/or data can go unused. So, what do businesses need to know or what other technologies do they need to adopt to avoid common CDP pitfalls and serve up experiences that will be a key differentiator in today's marketplace. That's exactly what Matt and I talked about. Here are just a few of the things we covered: The current state of marketing and why first party data is king Why CDPs are that are connected and accessible throughout the organization are so immensely important for today's organizations The common challenges organizations face with their CDPs How organizations can maximize their data to make customer interactions more meaningful We wrapped up the conversation by exploring Pega's newest release, Pega Customer Data Connectors. This new solution is an exciting one, as it integrates data and decision-making in near real time. Organizations can tap into their data to provide just what the customer needs exactly when they need it — which is a fundamental element of delivering unparalleled customer experiences. And if you'd like more information on Pega and the Pega Customer Data Connectors, you'll find it here.  

Stop creating partner-first strategies! What??? It's the reason we do what we do, right? Wrong. Your client is the reason you do what you do. Your partnerships need to originate with the client wants first if you want your program to have measurable success. Then, focus on your partners. It sounds simple enough, but Carola Cazenave, Business Angel, Business Advisor, Board Member, and most recently Vice President Global BP Ecosystem, Pegasystems, says it's not what a lot of companies are doing. Join us as we discuss:  Bringing in partners at all levels of strategy  Being authentic with clients  The metrics we should all be using to measure success Here are some additional episodes featuring other ecosystem leaders that might interest you: #121 Aligning Ecosystem Strategy with Your Customer as the North Star with Lara Caimi, Chief Partner Officer, ServiceNow  #122 There's No Easy Button For Partnering with Nicole Napiltonia, VP Of Alliances and OEM Sales, at Barracuda  #106 The Secrets to Managing Alliances Like Microsoft with David Totten, Chief Technology Officer, US Partner Ecosystem at Microsoft  #97 Why Quality Always Beats Quantity in Software Ecosystems with Tom Roberts, Senior Vice President at the Global Partner Organization over at SAP.  Links & Resources Learn more about how WorkSpan helps customers accelerate their ecosystem flywheel through Co-selling, Co-innovating, Co-investing, and Co-marketing. Subscribe to the Ecosystem Aces Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcast.  Join the WorkSpan Community to engage with other partner ecosystem leaders on best practices, news, events, jobs, and other tips to advance your career in partnering. Find insightful articles on how to lead and get the most out of your partner ecosystem on the WorkSpan blog. Download the Best Practices Guide for Ecosystem Business Management  Download the Ultimate Guide for Partner Incentives and Market Development Funds   To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about modern partnering, he can be reached on Twitter, LinkedIn, or send Chip an email at: chip@workspan.com This episode of Ecosystem Aces is sponsored by WorkSpan.  WorkSpan is the #1 ecosystem business management platform. We give CROs a digital platform to turbocharge indirect revenue with their partner teams at higher win rates and lower costs. We connect your partners on a live network with cross-company business applications to build, market, and sell together. We power the top 10 business ecosystems in the technology and communications industry today, managing over $50 billion in the joint pipeline. 

Today's interview is with James Dodkins, CX Evangelist at Pegasystems. James joins me today to talk about some new research that Pega has just conducted, some of the results, the big trends and shifts that are driving the future of customer service and a webinar (registration link) that they are holding next week (Oct 4th) as part of Customer Service Week. This interview follows on from my recent interview – CX professionals extol the importance of empathy towards external customers but often overlook its importance with internal ones – Interview with Jack Springman – and is number 441 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Adam Kenney is Chief Product Officer at Numerated, which helps banks and credit unions transform how they lend to businesses. Chad talks with Adam about what institutional banks and credit unions are like as a market and customers and what sales cycles look like, going from 17 to more than 130 customers quickly, and the scaling challenges they faced, and how the pandemic affected them as a company. Numerated (https://www.numerated.com/) Follow Numerated on Twitter (https://twitter.com/numeratedgt), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4igz9AZqOXJlZxtXUBO-1Q), or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/numerated/). Follow Adam on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ademski) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kenney-ab-cmu/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel, and with me, today is Adam Kenney, Chief Product Officer at Numerated, which helps banks and credit unions transform how they lend to businesses. Adam, thanks so much for joining me. ADAM: Thank you, Chad. Thanks for having me. CHAD: Let's dive into Numerated a little bit more. How do you help banks and credit unions lend to businesses? ADAM: I think we're in the middle of what is a pretty meaningful transformation in terms of how businesses are expecting to get access to credit. Really what they want is something that is fast, easy, convenient, largely driven off of the change that has happened in the retail space over the last 10 to 15 years. And in many ways, business lending is still catching up to that, and so our focus is doing that. It's helping the banks and credit unions really change how they interact with their business customers. We use a combination of data and great experiences to make that process as seamless as possible. We've been noted to, using the combination of data and technology, help banks increase the number of loans that they can do with their existing staff by as much as fourfold. We are also noted for inventing what we like to refer to as the three-minute business loan. It's one of the things we were written up on in the Wall Street Journal back in our days in Eastern Labs, where we've been able to get businesses from the point of application all the way to a funded loan in less than three minutes. And that's a process that historically has taken as long as three weeks. And so really excited by the ways that we're able to really help change how banks themselves can look at their operations. But more than anything, it's how banks are able to rethink and change how they interact with businesses and help the businesses in your communities grow and get access to the credit that they need. CHAD: So from a digital product perspective, there's a piece of a product there that banks are actually taking on and white-labeling that provides a lending experience for their clients, right? ADAM: That's correct. I mean, we're a cloud-based SaaS system. But you're right; they branded as their own. And so if you're going to Eastern Bank's website and clicking through and ultimately going through the application process with us, it's going to look and feel like it's just Eastern's website. And all of the interactions that you have with Eastern or any of our customers are going to feel that way as well. So yes, it is a white-label solution that we sell to the banks, and they provide to their customers. CHAD: The actual banking industry is not one that I've had a lot of experience in. And so I'm curious what institutional banks, credit unions, that kind of thing what they're like as a market or as customers and what the sales cycle looks like and those kinds of things. ADAM: It's about as varied as an industry can get, I'll tell you that. [laughs] You have to remember that banks and credit unions can be as small as having a few hundred million dollars in assets, maybe as small as 100 million. And in some of our customers' cases, they're de novo banks, and they're just getting started. And they range up to multiple billions of dollars in assets. And so, these are organizations that scale dramatically. Each of them have their own problems. They're also going to be made up of very different tech-minded individuals. You're going to have some smaller institutions that are basically managing a book of business that's been a book of business for close to a century and are interested in how technology can make them more efficient. But they are not the technologists that you and I would be used to working with on a day-to-day basis. And then, of course, you have people like ourselves who are really trying to, from inside the bank, change what banking is to their customers. And so, it's a very diverse industry in terms of what they're looking to accomplish. We've even come up with recently this framework around how we think about and really talk to our customers about how they transform and the levels of transformation that they can go through. And for us, it's essentially a four-level transformation starting with very small and pointed technology innovations that allow them to drive innovation in very fragmented bits and pieces, for lack of a better term, up to and including they're going to transform everything or become a digital bank. And you can imagine there are lots of stops along the way in terms of where a bank is and where they want to end up as part of their strategy. CHAD: From a product perspective and managing change, do you get a lot of custom features from individual, either clients or potential clients? And how do you manage that if you do? ADAM: The way I think about it is that we certainly get a lot of requests from our customers, and every customer likes to think that they are different and unique. In reality, there's a strong theme to almost all of the requests that we get. And personally, I think that's part of what our job is as a product leader is to really understand how to create themes out of the individual requests and provide a platform back to the market that addresses as many of those in a more holistic way and drives value across not just the individual asks but across all of the customers. And so yeah, there's some uniqueness. And certainly, we need to provide a platform that allows for that. So as an example, every bank has a slightly different view into how they want their credit policy to work and be implemented, but the framework around how you make credit decisions, how I get data into the platform. How do I create a credit matrix? And how do I then decide the exact offer terms to drive out of that? Like, that's a standard capability. And so we're innovating on that based on the individual features, but it's really not with an eye towards providing a specific custom feature to individual customers. It's more providing a flexible platform that allows them to configure the nuance but in a general theme that's going to help them be a better business. CHAD: So in the U.S., we had a specific program launched, PPP loans, in the pandemic to help support businesses. And I know thoughtbot we participated in that and went through that process. I don't think our bank was using Numerated. But I know that the bank really maybe...because they weren't using Numerated, [laughs] they needed to bring together an entirely new application interface very, very quickly in order to be able to take our application to that. And I think that Numerated was right there at the start of that. ADAM: Yes. CHAD: Talk about something custom maybe quickly. ADAM: [laughs] CHAD: What did pulling that together look like? ADAM: So maybe to take a step back if I could first and just paint a picture for you because you're right, it was kind of a unique and incredible period of time. We were fortunate in our line of work because we are all about helping banks transform how they lend to businesses. We had the base platform already built and established that allowed businesses to apply for loans on our platform. Even before the pandemic, we were one of the leading technology platforms for processing SBA loans. So we were uniquely positioned for the opportunity as it results to PPP. At the start of the pandemic, we had approximately 17 customers using our platform. Fast forward six months later, we had 135. And so, to your point around there were a large number of institutions looking for a new application solution overnight, I think that shows you how aggressively banks needed a solution. And there was an opportunity for us to offer our platform to be that. I think the other thing to recognize as part of the backdrop anyway is this was a crazy time if you think back to where we were in the pandemic. No one knew what life was going to look like in a week. And most businesses, especially smaller ones, didn't know if they were going to have a business. And so for us, that also provided the opportunity and maybe a little bit of the confidence in saying, "You know, we have nothing to lose. We're well-positioned. And what else are we going to do? Because it's not like people are making other loans for the next couple of months. Let's just go own this". And so I think it was the combination of us making that recognition, having a really good base platform that had familiarity with the SBA, had familiarity with business lending, and with a team that then could really acutely focus on solving this one problem for as many customers as possible. And by the way, have the emotional impact of not only helping banks but knowing that we're basically helping hundreds of thousands of businesses stay afloat through probably the craziest time in our country's history. And so that's really what got us going. And then there was a ton of work to your point around customization around building out the platform. But the one thing we've tried to do from the beginning is hold true to some of the foundational vision that I mentioned earlier. Like, we don't want to be in the business of custom software. That's not a winning proposition for us or our customers. And so, as much as it was maybe hard at times, throughout PPP, we were always thinking about okay, so we have to make these changes to support this crazy never-before-seen lending program. But how can we do it in a way that's going to set us up to serve the businesses in a year or two when this whole pandemic thing is over? Because PPP is not going to last forever, but our customers are. The businesses are still going to need credit. So whatever we're doing as much as possible, let's be building a foundation that gets us well beyond PPP. And so we were using it as really a catalyst to build a bigger business even while we were helping customers through the pandemic. CHAD: One of the things that I really appreciated, and I have an outside perspective on it, but I really...and people can always do better. ADAM: Yes. [laughs] CHAD: But I thought it was one of the rare circumstances where everyone realized the urgency of the situation: government, banks, everybody. And there was a real willingness to realize, well, we've got to do something. If we try to figure it out all right now, it's going to take too long. So let's just do something, and we'll work out the details later. And so I think there was a willingness, and from a product perspective, my guess would be that allowed you to work iteratively too. ADAM: It did. It was [laughs], I think in some ways a blessing and a curse. CHAD: [laughs] ADAM: Because I can tell you that the number of times my team would get a set of new capabilities, which listen, were great for the customers. It made everything better for the businesses that needed help, so I would never want it any other way. But the number of times that those new capabilities were announced by the SBA on a Friday night and were expected to be live on Monday morning, let's just say it was more frequent than I would ever like to relive. [laughs] And I can remember, especially going into the second round of PPP, it just so happened that all that was happening between Thanksgiving and Christmas in a year where all families wanted to do was spend time with each other after a crazy year had gone by. But we didn't get that luxury, unfortunately. We had a job to do, and that was to make sure that we were ready for the next round. And so it did come with a lot of cost in terms of we had to work really hard to make it happen. But to your point, it allowed us to iterate. And I give the government credit, too, particularly the SBA. They could have, for example, just launched the program and then launched more money into it and stood still, but they didn't do that. To your comment, they had to get live as quick as possible. And so that first round of PPP, there were more technology hiccups. The SBA had some volume constraints. They couldn't really handle the performance. We ended up having to govern our application submissions because otherwise, the SBA couldn't handle it. There were other challenges in terms of how we were validating data. But that got better month by month. And certainly, by the time we got to the forgiveness part of the process and then the next round of PPP the following winter, they actually invested in completely ripping out their legacy API and providing us in the tech community a modern RESTful interface that was much easier, much more performant. And so, even though the volume got even crazier as we went through the program, it actually became easier for us to deliver. The first round, we were literally working around the clock because the SBA was having issues. We couldn't get enough documents through DocuSign and whatever else. We did, I want to say, close to 3 times the volume in the next round a year later but at about 15% of the energy because we had just improved that much in less than a year. And it wasn't just Numerated; it was Numerated working with our partners in government and elsewhere to just get the process that much smoother for our customers. CHAD: Were there things that you needed to do at Numerated? I mean, to go from 17 customers to more than 130 that quickly, I assume that there were some scaling challenges for you along the way. ADAM: There was. And I will say this: we were blessed to have a really good technical infrastructure in place that allowed us to scale on the infrastructure side without a ton of problems. We were able to essentially stand up new environments in our infrastructure relatively quickly and easily and even handle the peak volume of PPP, which was exponentially higher than anything we had ever done on the platform. That was not a problem for us. Where we had to scale is in two areas, one from a technical standpoint was how we were interacting with our technical partners. I mentioned already the need to govern how we were submitting applications to the SBA. We worked very closely with DocuSign to essentially put rate caps on how many documents we were generating at any given time and essentially spread the volume because none of us had dealt with that or dealt with that kind of volume before. And that's where we had technical challenges were in the interfaces and working with partners to make sure everything lined up well. So that was one area, got through it pretty well. And ultimately, like I said, for the second round, we were smooth sailing. The other area to your point around standing up all the banks was how we implemented the customers. Our typical implementation cycles going into the pandemic were multiple months. We had to stand up all over the PPP banks in less than two weeks. And so that took a combination of...I'll call it technical delivery. So we essentially created a cookie-cutter deployment and then used a deployment strategy to push that to all of the new customers all at once that we didn't have before. And we were able to create that relatively quickly. The other was we had to take a much harder stance with our customers than we had ever done around look; everyone's getting the same thing. It's government-mandated anyway, but it's going to be exactly the same. And other than the white-labeling that we, of course, gave everybody, you might want slightly different process around the workflow, around the approval. You're going to have to take the same thing that everybody else is because we just don't have time to configure the nuance across 100 banks. And so luckily, to your earlier comment around, everybody just realized we were in this unique time, we do what we have to do, and we got through it. Our banks were very willing to do that. But that was the other change we had to do to really see this scale through. Mid-Roll Ad: Now that you have funding, it's time to design, build and ship the most impactful MVP that wows customers now and can scale in the future. thoughtbot Lift Off brings you the most reliable cross-functional team of product experts to mitigate risk and set you up for long-term success. As your trusted, experienced technical partner, we'll help launch your new product and guide you into a future-forward business that takes advantage of today's new technologies and agile best practices. Make the right decisions for tomorrow, today. Get in touch at: thoughtbot.com/liftoff CHAD: If you're comfortable talking about architecture a little bit, do you have a shared sort of platform that everyone is on? Or, for each of the customers you have, do they have their own instance? ADAM: So we've made the decision, mostly because of our regulated industry; we felt like it was safer, so each customer gets their own database. We do keep everyone's data completely isolated to protect their information and give them the utmost confidence that it is protected. But we have a shared application layer. And so, our web servers are shared multi-tenant instances. And so it's essentially a combined environment where we're both sharing some resources but then also deploying individual databases and then the configuration because outside of PPP, it is unique bank by bank. And so, the configuration gets deployed within each bank's individual environment. CHAD: Cool. I've worked on systems like that before, and they can certainly present...especially when you need to scale them quickly, and you've got a lot of new customers being added. You better hope that it's been automated. [laughs] ADAM: Yes. And luckily, we had a good amount of automation in place during PPP or even going into it, I should say, but of course, PPP stretched that. And so we've just continued to get better and better as a couple of years have gone by. CHAD: So the second PPP came through. It's in the forgiveness period now, so that's winding down. So Numerated were at that point you alluded to earlier, which is when you were doing PPP, you realized it's not going to be around forever. Let's lay the groundwork now to help customers in the future. We're sort of at that point now, right? ADAM: Yes. CHAD: So what does that look like for you? ADAM: So it's essentially expanding the portfolio of loans that our customers can leverage our platform to execute. And maybe to say that better, if you look back prior to PPP, we got our start with small small business lending. And what I mean by that is loans under $250,000 that can be highly automated. That's where Numerated got its start working with Eastern first 15 customers, saw the value in getting extreme efficiency and delivering essentially capital to their businesses in a number of days instead of weeks. That's what we were great at, very similar to what PPP was, by the way, which was getting money to people in a number of hours in some cases. But we knew that that was never the vision for what we wanted to be or what our banks needed in the business banking segment. Ultimately, they want that same level of use efficiency experience for all of their business loans. But in order to support that, there are a number of capabilities that we needed to build into our platform to handle that. Underwriting gets increasingly complicated when you are underwriting loans at 500,000, a million, or $5 million. The businesses get more complicated. The collateral gets more complicated. The entire process just becomes more sophisticated. But that's what banks want, and by the way, that's what businesses want. They don't want to have a great experience when they're a little bit smaller, and they've taken out a $100,000 loan and then have the experience be crap two years later when they come back, and they've taken out a million-dollar loan. And so, that has always been our vision. We've had the fortune of being able to do really well on PPP and essentially just accelerate that vision. And so that's what we're working on right now is really building a loan origination system that allows our customers to transform how they lend to businesses in entirety. We have been building out all of the sophistication I mentioned around underwriting. We have recently acquired a company called Fincura based out of the Boston area. They automate spreading. If you're not familiar with what spreading is, it basically takes either paper or PDF versions of a bank's financial statements, and it turns them into really critical financial ratios that help banks understand the creditworthiness and the risk associated with the business. So you can imagine what that is. It's taking OCR, technology, AI, and basically taking what were PDFs and converting them into scores that can then be used to automate and drive efficiency in the credit decision, again, all part of being able to then really transform how banks are doing all of their business lending. But that's what we're working on now, converting all of the PPP customers to use the non-PPP, for lack of a better phrase, parts of the platform and really helping them change how their businesses look at them in terms of the opportunity to access credit. CHAD: So I think it's probably worth noting you made the decision to join Numerated right before the pandemic hit. ADAM: That's correct. CHAD: And so you joined when? ADAM: My last day at my previous company happened to be the day we closed the office due to the pandemic. I had obviously made the decision prior to that. But then, my first day on the job at Numerated was the second day of PPP. So essentially, you know, call it a week after everybody had gone home for what became the better part of the next year to two years. CHAD: So I assume making a decision to join a new company, you're going to be the chief product officer. You've had a lot of conversations about what the vision is and what you're going to do. And you're going into a business where hey, there are 17 customers, and we're going to scale. But you probably didn't guess what was going to happen ended up happening. ADAM: No. [laughs] CHAD: So I imagine like part of your vision for what you were going to do both as a company and as an individual must have gotten put on hold. ADAM: It's funny, yes and no. So I will say no to your lead in there. There were certainly times before I started where I was calling Dan our founder and CEO. And I was probing him and pushing him like, is this still a thing? [laughs] Are we really going to go do this? Not realizing what PPP was and really what it was going to mean for our business. So there was that period of time where I wasn't sure. I knew it was going to be different, but I didn't know what that meant yet. Once I understood what was happening and what we were doing, I actually never felt like it was putting anything on hold. And I can come back to the fact that it put some elements of our business on hold. But for me and why I joined and the vision I had, I was coming to help the team really expand what the platform could do for banks and their business customers and to accelerate the number of ways we could help. I have prior experience working at Capital One and Pegasystems with a lot of the systems and the processes that we were helping to reinvent at Numerated. And so, my vision was always to come and build off of those past experiences and accelerate what we were doing in this specific small business segment. PPP, in a lot of ways, just accelerated that. It took what would have probably been three to five years' worth of market adoption in terms of understanding what digital transformation was going to look like, getting customers fully comfortable with a more digital experience, getting comfortable with a more data-driven approach to decision-making. And the pandemic forced all of that to happen in weeks. CHAD: Well, people couldn't even go into the bank to turn in their paperwork. It had to be done remotely. The staff wasn't there either. ADAM: And the staff no longer could look at paper financial statements because they couldn't get paper financial statements. And so everything changed overnight. One of our customers has told us at multiple customer events since he's like, "You guys, you let the rabbit out of the hat, and it's not going back." It just changed overnight what was happening in the industry. And then, for us, it gave us all of this extra opportunity to invest and invest more in what we wanted to go do. Our team, when I joined, was about 40 to 45 people. Our team now is 145 people. And our engineering team went from a little over 20 to just under 60. So we have exponentially changed the rate in which we're innovating and going after things. And so, for me, it's just accelerated and made things more exciting. The one other comment I'll make in terms of putting things on hold it did put some elements of the business on hold because every one of our customers stopped thinking about what I'll call traditional business lending and focused 100% for the better part of 18 months on getting through the pandemic. And even once PPP was done, there was another six to nine months where banks were trying to figure out, are we really out of the pandemic? Are we ready to start lending the way we used to? Do we need to rethink risk? Because these businesses are all different now than they were two years ago. The things that made a business risky two years ago are different now. And so there was also a little bit of a hangover as our customers internalized within their own walls what it meant to get back into lending. And so, it did put some elements of that on hold. We were fortunate, though, that we grew so much through PPP. And we actually kept adding what I'll call core customers, not just PPP customers, during that period that our growth actually accelerated. And it's been really good for us. CHAD: That's great. You mentioned the team growth that you've had. Different companies are organized in different ways. As Chief Product Officer, where do you sit within the organization and relative to the engineering team? ADAM: So at Numerated, my responsibility includes all of the product management as well as the engineering organization. So I'm responsible with my teams for everything from initial product strategy, the product design. I have all of the UX and design team as well as then all of the execution, the delivery of the platform as well. CHAD: So does that mean that there's VP of engineering in your organization or some sort of person like that that's working closely with you? ADAM: Sort of. So I have...basically, it divides more at the director level. So I have a couple of VPs that work for me that have a combination of product and engineering, both experience, expertise, and responsibility. But then their teams have product managers, and then we have directors of engineering that then manage their individuals from teams. I also have a group of former bankers. They're product managers but act as consultants to those organizations. And that's where we get all of our industry expertise. They've worked with the SBA. They've worked in credit offices, and they really help to influence the product roadmap across those teams as well. CHAD: So the entire engineering structure also being under the chief Product Officer, I would say that and correct me if I'm wrong, I think that's probably not how the majority of companies organize it. Do you agree with that? ADAM: I have seen both, but I would agree that it is not the majority. CHAD: I would say if there is a majority, and I agree, I've seen both too, but you might have a CTO and then VP of engineering. And so, the engineering organization goes all the way up to the C-level. And then there's a Chief Product Officer. And here's the product management and product underneath them. Was this an intentional choice from the beginning as you scaled out the team for you to have it all live under you? ADAM: It was intentional. I will give my personal view on it. I think that as we continue to evolve as technology companies, one of the hardest things for us to achieve is alignment around vision and purpose. And that drives a level of focus that I think maximizes the ability to move the business forward. And based on that premise, the places where I've seen things work the best is when there is a focal point across product and engineering within specialization underneath. Because it drives, I think, the best alignment across the organization. I will acknowledge, however, that finding leaders that can actually operate effectively in that combined role is extremely difficult because you need people that have a high degree of engineering experience so that they actually know how to build for quality, build for scale, even for things that don't immediately impact the bottom line while having enough business acumen to understand the demands of the business and how to balance those priorities against what we need to grow the business at the same time. And so, it does create a little bit of a snowflake challenge. I cannot find or replace those roles as we grow and scale nearly as quickly as I can in a divided organization. But I have found that it does help me drive clarity of priorities and purpose and ultimately focus in the organization versus the places I've worked where that hasn't been the case. CHAD: So I guess given that, then I assume you're hiring. [laughs] ADAM: We are always hiring. [laughs] We are definitely in growth mode. And we are looking for great people that can help us to build a platform and really transform how our customers are thinking about how they lend to their businesses. CHAD: Well, I agree. I think there are different structures then that can achieve it. And also, a lot of it comes down to the people but that alignment and that understanding of design, and product, and development or engineering. And ideally, people and all of those skill sets and all those teams who get it and can balance those different priorities with the business is really important, and that alignment of vision. And so there are probably different structures to get it, but that's what you're aiming for. And I think that the structure that you've set up is one which is very helpful to getting that alignment. ADAM: Agreed. Agreed. I think that while we're on the topic of the team and the culture we're trying to build out, I'll maybe use that as a way to share a few more things that we're really driving towards. You can imagine a company that has scaled the way we have and continues to grow. That presents some other organizational challenges as well. One of my firm beliefs is the fastest way to scale is to create really strong, empowered, decentralized teams. That, again, gets back to the whole vision and focus thing. They have to be rowing in the same direction. But they have to be really independent in the day-to-day. And so we've really spent a lot of time over the last, I would say, year and a half shifting to that kind of a model to where each of the teams is really embracing what their individual accountabilities are. They are really focused on how they're delivering success for the business and are able to make a lot of the day-to-day decisions. But then it falls to management, leadership, myself to make sure that when they make those decisions, they understand the context in which we're trying to drive the business so that we can do as much as we can as fast as we can but in a way that's high quality and delivers value. CHAD: Awesome. Well, I sincerely wish you all the best in that. I really appreciate you stopping by and sharing. Thank you. ADAM: Yeah, my pleasure. I appreciate the time, and good to get to know you a little bit, Chad. CHAD: If folks want to find out more, maybe apply, follow along with you; where are all the places that they can do that? ADAM: Yeah, sure. So numerated.com is where they can go and learn more about the business, and they can learn more about where we're hiring. People should check me out on LinkedIn. That's probably where I'm the most active these days. And feel free to message me as well. I'll also give you my email address if anybody wants to reach out. It's pretty simple. It's adam@numerated.com. Whether it's opinions, thoughts, or reactions to anything that I've shared today, or you just want to build a relationship, I'd love to hear from people and get to know you a little bit better. CHAD: Wonderful. You can find links to all those things, probably not Adam's email address, in the show notes. ADAM: [laughs] CHAD: We want to protect him from those spam crawlers. But you can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for the episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter at @cpytel. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks so much for listening, and see you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast was brought to you by thoughtbot. thoughtbot is your expert design and development partner. Let's make your product and team a success. Special Guest: Adam Kenney.

Believe me, you are not the only one who has believed that leadership is about a position. In today's episode my guest, Rich Diviney, states it is much more than that; leadership is about a set of attributes. In this episode of Fifth Dimensional Leadership, we look back at Rich Diviney's definition of the "attributes" of leadership. He explains why it's not about your role, but how you do it in such a way that positively impacts your people. Developing that attribute requires a test of courage, perseverance and resilience that only a true leader takes on and faces. Rich Diviney, author of The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance, and retired Navy SEAL commander with over 20+ years of experience. He has completed more than 13 overseas deployments, 11 of which were to Iraq and Afghanistan. As the officer in charge of training for a specialized command, Rich spearheaded the creation of a directorate that fused physical, mental, and emotional disciplines. He led a small team first-ever "Mind Gym" that helped special operators train their brains to perform faster, longer, and better in all environments — especially high-stress ones.  Since his retirement in early 2017, Rich has worked as a speaker, facilitator, and consultant with the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute and Simon Sinek Inc. He's taught about leadership and optimal performance to more than five thousand business, athletic, and military leaders from organizations such as American Airlines, Meijer Inc., the San Francisco 49ers, Pegasystems, Zoom, and Deloitte. Things you will also learn in this episode: How to determine whether a behavior is a skill or an attribute, and why it matters. The key differences between peak performance and optimal performance. Is grit the same as resilience? How companies are adapting hiring criteria to assess core attributes. The four levels of learning. Why narcissism isn't entirely bad and can be a driver of optimal performance. Quotes “Leadership is a behavior. A leader is responsible for the development, growth, and success of the people in their charge.” - Rich Diviney   “We have to start looking beyond visible skills.” - Rich Diviney   “Leadership is a behavior, not a position.” - Rich Diviney   “Developing an attribute is a test of an individual's self-motivation, self-direction, and willingness to throw themselves into discomfort and uncertainty.” - Rich Diviney   “Developing attributes is a self-directed evolution; no one can do it for you.” - Rich Diviney   “Optimal performance is about how you can do the very best you can at the moment, whatever the best might look like.” - Rich Diviney   “Hiring is a two-way street and allows the candidate to assess whether or not the company has the attributes and values they are looking for.” - Rich Diviney

For this of you that don't know him,  James Dodkins used to be an actual, real-life, legitimate, award-winning rockstar. He played guitar in a heavy metal band, released albums, and tore up stages all over the world, James is now the CX Evangelist at Pegasystems where he researches the mindsets, principals and philosophies of companies that deliver ‘Rockstar Customer Experiences'.

Minter Dialogue with Don Schuerman Don Schuerman is CTO and Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Pegasystems, responsible for Pega's industry-leading platform and CRM applications. He's a musician, improv comedian and a master of events on and offline. In this conversation, we discuss his work at Pega, his experience and lessons learned of moving the annual flagship conference from off to online, how purpose comes alive as part of Pega's modus operandi, the challenges with hybrid work, how Pega brings simplicity to an ever-complexifying business world.   If you've got comments or questions you'd like to see answered, send your email or audio file to nminterdial@gmail.com; or you can find the show notes and comment on minterdial.com. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to rate/review the show on RateThisPodcast. Otherwise, you can find me @mdial on Twitter.

Today we're joined by Rob Walker, VP of decisioning & analytics and gm of one-to-one customer engagement at Pegasystems. Rob, who you might know from his previous appearances on the podcast, joins us to discuss his work on AI and ML in the context of customer engagement and decisioning, the various problems that need to be solved, including solving the “next best” problem. We explore the distinction between the idea of the next best action and determining it from a recommender system, how the combination of machine learning and heuristics are currently co-existing in engagements, scaling model evaluation, and some of the challenges they're facing when dealing with problems of responsible AI and how they're managed. Finally, we spend a few minutes digging into the upcoming PegaWorld conference, and what attendees should anticipate at the event. The complete show notes for this episode can be found at twimlai.com/go/573

B2B marketing has been adopting B2C trends, and one of the biggest trends is customer-centric marketing.Basically, marketers are asked to build relationships at scale.But most people fail to understand the shift in mindset and strategy this takes.That's why we brought, Kelly Maloney Shermerhorn, a champion of customer-centric marketing to help you understand:- what it takes to move from company-centric to a customer-centric marketing culture- how to measure your level of customer centricity- ways to start becoming more customer-centric in your copy on LinkedIn and email exchanges- and much more!Kelly is a 15-year veteran in the marketing and communications industry that heads regional ABM efforts for the healthcare and life-sciences sector of Pegasystems, a low-code software platform that crushes business complexity.  Let Kelly help you crush the complexity of your marketing efforts by focusing more on your customer than yourself.  You know, how relationships are built.Come be a part of the show!https://tinyurl.com/B2BCBSeason5Connect with Kelly!On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyschermerhorn/Connect with ME!Learn to produce internet talk shows and build your own Relationship Flywheel. Find out more about the Bootcamp HERE.Also, I'd love it if you connected with me on LinkedIn or Instagram.Or shoot me an email at youshould@connectwithpablo.com with the "Heard B2B's Pamela Slim" in subject.This that's a genius email address?  Me too, but I didn't come up with it.  It was the idea of my good friend, and super talented web designer, Nathan Ruff.If you want your website redone, updated, and managed with unlimited updates for just $250/month (CRAZY GOOD DEAL RIGHT??), go to Manage My Website and hookup with one of the smartest, most talented guys I've ever met- THE Nathan Ruff.Support the show