Podcasts about servicemax

Send us a textField services businesses have undergone significant evolution, incorporating elements of Industry 4.0 and CRM. This convergence may be a key factor driving Salesforce's deep engagement in this market. ServiceMax stands out as a prime example of a company that has demonstrated remarkable potential within the field service sector. Originating as an ISV within the Salesforce ecosystem, ServiceMax has transitioned through various ownerships, including GE Digital, Silver Lake, and now PTC. These transitions have played a pivotal role in shaping ServiceMax's identity and fostering a novel category that transcends traditional boundaries. This category intersects CRM, engineering, and CAD, offering a unique proposition that traditional field service models may struggle to grasp. In light of these developments, it's crucial to assess where ServiceMax currently stands in terms of its capabilities and how it stacks up against other solutions within its category.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of ServiceMax's capabilities. We covered many grounds including where ServiceMax might be a 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 ServiceMax.For 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. 

Liz Carter has been in marketing for over 20 years and has been a CMO for the past four years. First at ServiceMax and now at Reputation. Liz grew up in a small town in North Carolina, where her family runs a hosiery manufacturing company. Eager to venture out, she moved to Atlanta, where she began doing gig work to pay the bills. Eventually, in 2001, she began doing event marketing for Internet Security Systems, where she began to learn the ins and outs of the software business. From there, she escaped the South to California for a job with SuccessFactors, where she realized there was a real career path for her in the software industry.On the show today, Alan and Liz talk about her life as a kid growing up in North Carolina, her path to becoming CMO at Reputation, and how the CMO role is evolving. We also discuss why it's important for marketing to harness reputation data through a couple real-world examples and how understanding that data can drive M&A decisions as well as product and service changes. Reputation helps their customers understand their reputation, manage it, get insights from that information, and take action that provides trust and transparency back to the consumers, which will help them understand what to expect. Liz tells us that as more reputation data becomes available online, consumers are buying primarily based on reviews, star ratings, and what they see on their social feeds. In this episode, you'll learn about:What are consumers trying to understand with online reputation data? How have CRMs changed marketing and the CMO role?How can marketing teams harness reputation data?Key Highlights:[01:40] How Liz got into software[04:05] From ISS to Reputation[07:00] What does Reputation do, and who do they serve?[08:30] The Wide World of Reputation data[10:10] The evolution of the CMO role[16:15] How can marketing teams harness reputation data?[22:25] The future of reputation data[26:30] Noteworthy experiences from her past[28:00] Advice to her younger self [28:30] Something Liz is trying to learn more about [31:30] Trends and subcultures to watch [33:05] The largest opportunities and threats facing marketers todayLooking for more?Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest! Become a member today and listen ad-free, visit https://plus.acast.com/s/marketingtoday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“What the water rig is at its core is a mobile water treatment technology, and it dramatically changed the lives of the people living on that site.”Having clean, drinkable water is essential for everyone, no matter where they are. For some on-site workers on remote oil and gas drilling sites, this means transporting in large amounts of bottled water. The result is a large amount of plastic waste from the bottles and air pollution from the extra traffic.WaterFleet provides an alternative solution. Their water treatment technology means that a mobile rig can be hooked up to an existing well or water storage source on site and provide people with clean potable water on tap. As the rig processes the water, it automatically and continually monitors the quality to ensure it's safe. WateFleet also uses this technology to provide temporary water solutions to areas that have been affected by natural disasters. Our producer Eva Ruth went to the WaterFleet headquarters in San Antonio, Texas to meet the Director of Business Intelligence, David Meyers. He explains WaterFleet's mission statement and takes us inside one of the water rigs.Find out more about the WaterFleet here.Find out more about ServiceMax here.Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Eva Ruth. Music by Rowan Bishop.

In this episode you hear from former LiquidFrameworks Founder & CEO Travis Parigi. He sold his company in 2021 to ServiceMax and left ServiceMax early in 2022. Travis lives in Houston, TX with his family and is currently thinking about his next endeavor. Here he talks about how he started the company, why he converted the code in 2012, what (CPQ) start-ups should consider, how to approach investments, common pitfalls of early stage start-ups and much more. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tparigi/ Twitter @tparigi

Sumair Dutta is the Vice President, Product Marketing at ServiceMax. He is an experienced product marketer and industry analyst. Sumair has deep familiarity with field service, workforce management, and frontline worker needs. Sumair joins the host Eugene Signorini to talk about the changing role of frontline workers.   Takeaways  The biggest problem facing the frontline workforce today is the disruption that new technology has brought. While some jobs can be automated frontline workers can be interacting with customers and spend less time on unnecessary paperwork. A true test of automation is to see if it still works after taking some fields away from it, rather than just adding more work to it and hoping that it works out well. The technicians and those on the frontline are the ones who represent your company to your customers, so you want to make sure they are fully capable and able to do any work they need to do in the field.  The people who take on the role of a field service technician or someone else working the frontlines are people who want to help solve problems that customers are having a get over any potential hurdles. The work that frontline employees are doing is becoming more complex, requiring multiple steps for a single task to be completed.  Organizations are going to want to tap more into the customer success part of the frontline workforce. Companies will be able to use that as a source of revenue and lead generation for themselves.  It's important to understand the needs of technicians and frontline workers and see where any of the pain points are and try to solve that for them.    Quote of the show: 12:22 “The folks who take on these jobs are inherently folks who want to solve problems.” Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumairdutta/ Company Website: https://www.servicemax.com/   Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/f-swOhgPqcg   Frontline Innovators is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Asset-centric Field Service Management Software

Amit Jain from ServiceMax joins me in a conversation about how digital transformation strategies and SaaS are reshaping and improving field service industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, etc. I learn more about Asset Data Gravity and how AI influences field service and product design. About ServiceMax ServiceMax's mission is to help customers keep the world running with asset-centric field service management software. ServiceMax's mobile apps and cloud-based software provide a complete view of assets to field service teams. By optimizing field service operations, customers across all industries can better manage the complexities of service, support faster growth, and run more profitable, outcome-centric businesses.

Welcome to the Oil and Gas HSE podcast — brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened-to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. This episode is made possible by Endress+Hauser. The popularity of this podcast is due to its variety of guests and topics.  This show is no exception as you will never guess what the discussion is when Russell interviews Dave Levitt, Sr. VP, Worldwide Sales Liquidframeworks, a Servicemax company.  Listen and find out.   LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dave-levitt-0685541 Website: https://liquidframeworks.com/fieldfx/   More from OGGN … Podcasts LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Company Page Get notified about industry events

Welcome to the Oil and Gas HSE podcast — brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened-to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. This episode is made possible by Endress+Hauser. The popularity of this podcast is due to its variety of guests and topics.  This show is no exception as you will never guess what the discussion is when Russell interviews Dave Levitt, Sr. VP, Worldwide Sales Liquidframeworks, a Servicemax company.  Listen and find out.   LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dave-levitt-0685541 Website: https://liquidframeworks.com/fieldfx/   More from OGGN ... Podcasts LinkedIn Group LinkedIn Company Page Get notified about industry events

On the new episode of WE MAKE THINGS, we talk to Percy Chow, the Creative Director of Service Max, and explore his experience running an internal agency at a technology company.  In this exciting episode, Percy gives his tips for creating the best possible content for both external and internal  customers, and getting stakeholders “on board” with his creative ideas.

Today's podcast features special guest, ServiceMax CEO Neil Barua. ServiceMax is a leader in asset-centric field service management software. On the podcast, Neil discusses: -Private equity firm Silver Lake's role in the evolution of ServiceMax -Why the company's SaaS business model may be attractive for investors -Details regarding its $1.4 billion merger with SPAC Pathfinder Acquisition -Key opportunities in its future growth plan -And more

Workiva recently became the first SaaS company to gain entry to the UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce, as a part of which its CFO Jill Klindt, joined the task force. Workiva now aims to help companies in aligning their sustainability goals and commitments with credible corporate finance strategies.NirogGyan, a SaaS company focusing on the healthcare industry, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by industry veterans. Participants in the round include Arindam Haldar, Teji HS, Sumit Bagaria, and others like BITS Pilani's startup incubator PIEDS (Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society). Google Assistant Investments Program and 100x Entrepreneurs have invested an unknown sum in Slang Labs. Slang Labs, which was formed in 2017, claims to be one of the first Google-funded companies in the global In-App Voice Assistant market. NRG Systems, a developer and manufacturer of decision support tools, has announced the launch of NRG Cloud. To make data retrieval and storage operations easier, NRG Cloud offers a suite of data management services. NRG Systems has made the NRG Cloud Standard Connect Package accessible for free. ServiceMax, a field service management SaaS provider, has recently announced its entry into a business combination agreement with Pathfinder Acquisition Corporation, a publicly-traded Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). The close of this transaction would list ServiceMax on Nasdaq as a public company.

ServiceMax, a field service management software provider, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LiquidFrameworks from a private equity investor Luminate Capital Partners. The financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed. Luminate Capital Partners had acquired LiquidFrameworks in 2019. In a press release, ServiceMax announced that the deal would expand its field service management solutions, to address unique challenges in the energy sector. Additionally, the acquisition would better position ServiceMax to meet digital service execution demand in the industry and facilitate its expansion of portfolio and go-to-market strategies.Netradyne, a startup using AI to build fleet safety solutions, has announced its Series C fundraise of $150 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2.  with participation from existing investors Point72 Ventures and M12.Amazon Web Services has announced the general availability of Amazon Health Lake, which is a cloud service that allows healthcare companies to centralize their medical data from various systems, and utilize it to improve patient care. According to AWS, utilizing HealthLake to consolidate different records into a single data repository makes information more accessible. This information includes medical information, such as clinician notes, lab reports, and insurance claims, stored in several databases.LearnWorlds, a platform for creating and selling online courses, has announced that it has raised $32 million in a minority investment led by Insight Partners, global venture capital and private equity firm.Google Cloud India has announced the launch of its new cloud region in Delhi-NCR. This would enable the firm to better their services to clients in various industries, particularly the public sector in India and the Asia-Pacific. The financial details have not been disclosed.Daloopa, a company providing AI-powered document automation and data extraction, has announced its $20 million Series A funding in a round led by Credit Suisse Asset Management's NEXT Investors. Lightyear, a software provider for network infrastructure procurement and management, has announced its Series A fundraise of $13.1 million from Ridge Ventures to boost hiring and resources in development, enhance go-to-market strategies, the company said in a press release. Lightyear had raised its seed round funding in 2020, netting $3.7 million from Amplo. With the close of Series A, the total funding raised by the company crossed 17 million $, as per Crunchbase.  Singapore-based Easy Eat, a startup transforming restaurants into tech companies, has announced a raise of $5 million to expand into deeper Southeast Asia. The round involved participation from Aroa Ventures, family office of Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of OYO; Reddy Futures Family Office; Prophetic Ventures; Maninder Gulati, global chief strategy officer of OYO; Cem Garih, managing Partner at Alarko Ventures, Fethi Sabancı Kamışlı, founder and managing partner of Esas Ventures and a few Silicon Valley-based VCs and angels, as per reports. SecurEnds, a cloud-based identity governance company, has announced a $21 million in Series A funding led by Elephant, one of the largest Series A investments in Atlanta's cybersecurity and tech startup ecosystem, the company stated in a press release. Lantronix has announced the introduction of True Zero-Touch Automation updates for provisioning remotely deployed IoT devices. Lantronix Inc. is a global provider of secure turnkey solutions for the Internet of Things and Remote Environment Management , including SaaS, connectivity, engineering, and intelligent hardware.Tinvio, a Singapore-based startup, has announced that it has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by AppWorks Ventures. The startup's strategic investor MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), also participated in the round. Other participants include Tinvio's existing investors, Sequoia Capital India's Surge, Global Founders Capital, and Partech Ventures. Digantara, a spacetech startup, has raised $2.5 million as part of their seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital. Digantara plans to utilize the funds to expedite product development and launch its first satellite (technology demonstration mission) into low-Earth orbit, according to the official announcement.MedPay, an API platform, has raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Talent Investor Entrepreneur First and GrowX Ventures. The funds will be used to meet rising demand and enhance the company's current product offerings.

Several top companies today are product-led companies. This includes the likes of Atlassian, Slack, Zoom, and Freshworks. What does it really mean to be a product-led company? Does product-led growth work for all startups? How do you design your outbound sales motion if you started with a product-led, inbound growth strategy? In today's episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, Stacey Epstein, the Chief Marketing Officer of Freshworks Inc. answers all these questions and more. Stacey joined Freshworks in March to lead the company's marketing organization. She oversees growth marketing, product marketing, branding, corporate marketing, communications, and analyst/ public relations at Freshworks.  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, activity capture, and more) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestStacey Epstein is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Freshworks Inc. She leads our global marketing organization including Growth Marketing, Product Marketing, Branding, Corporate Marketing,  Communications, and Analyst/Public Relations. Stacey brings more than 25 years of industry experience in growing iconic SaaS brands like SuccessFactors and ServiceMax through hyper-growth, acquisitions, and IPOs. Most recently, she was CMO and Chief Customer Experience Officer at ServiceMax - a position she returned to when Zinc, where she was CEO, was acquired by ServiceMax in 2019.Before Zinc, Stacey was CMO at ServiceMax, where she joined the founding team and led the marketing function through six years of triple-digit growth. She also was head of marketing at SuccessFactors for six years and was instrumental in the company's IPO in 2007, as well as its acquisition by SAP later. She currently serves on the board for Litmus and CircleCi. She's also a prolific author and is a fierce advocate for women in the workplace. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Welcome to Episode 48 of the ATL Career Journey podcast. Today's guest is Jonathan Salkoff, who is responsible for Business Solutions at ServiceMax.  I've known Jonathan for over 25 years since we worked together at Sprint.  Jonathan is smart, hardworking, customer focused, and a great servant leader.  He's a Naval Academy grad / military veteran, podcaster, and has recently gotten into voice-over work for audiobooks and corporate projects.  We discussed the importance of networking, taking jobs for the right reasons, and live your life without regrets!You can learn more about Jonathan on LinkedIn.

You don't need to see 50 or even 10 candidates to make a hire. You only need to see 1.  Why do we feel like we need to see a lot of people to “compare & contrast” before making a decision? Because we have been conditioned to window shop to ensure we are getting the best “deal”. But this is a transactional mindset which causes us to hire too fast with zero evidence to support the decision.  Resulting in bad hires! Let's change your perspective...  Start by flipping your funnel. Focus on the channels that produce the strongest hiring results. Referral Network, Warm Recruits, and then supplement with applicants.  Relationships, not money, are what drive people in today's hiring landscape.  Our guest today: Kate DeWald, Founder & CEO of OnCue. Kate DeWald is CEO and founder of Oncue, the leading software and booking service for the moving industry. Launched in 2018, Oncue helps moving companies increase their revenue by as much as 400%, year over year, by automating many of their manual processes and enabling them to devote more time towards business growth and longevity. Prior to leading Oncue, Kate served in go-to-market roles to drive growth at industry-leading SaaS companies, including SuccessFactors and ServiceMax. Today we discuss: Why hiring is a long term play How to gain access to high quality people  Challenge today?  Filling the top of the funnel with high quality people  Leadership roles Funnel: either too many (unqualified) or too few Making sure the candidate experience is stellar Why is this important to the company? Time wasting Want to find the people that are going to be best in the business Find the people that are aligned on mission, vision and values Rick's Nuggets Reactive hiring results in “oh shit” hires How do we solve the problem? Funnel: linkedin recruiting, cold outreach, recruiter Hire expert/subject matter expertise recruiting  Write content: be authentic and write about what it's truly like to work at your company Unbias interview process- doesn't matter where the candidate comes from Training leaders Reviewing questions prior to the interview Play the long game - interview and connect with people before you have the roles available, help out others where you can, it's about creating long lasting relationships with people Rick's Nuggets Referrals first: “Who have you worked with that was a strong performer in the organization?” Recruits: cross industry performers, competitors-  Key Takeaways -Value: Spend more time than you think you need on recruiting  Be authentic in your hiring process- if you're a startup, own it- being transparent with the candidate about what the role is really will set them up for success  Think about Key ways you can add value - how can you add value to your candidates in the process? Make sure they have a great experience regardless of the outcome Guest Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katedewald/ Websites: https://www.oncue.co/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnCue.co/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Oncueco   This show is proudly sponsored by Criteria Crop: https://www.criteriacorp.com/

Stacey Epstein is a fierce competitor, relentless marketer, and a woman who flat out understands SaaS. Part of that competitive fire is what has led her to be a four-time, first-team all conference soccer player during her collegiate years at Emory University. And that relentless attitude is what’s helped her succeed in the roles of CMO and CEO. But no matter how much hustle you have,  don’t get those C-level titles without fully understanding every ounce of your business.“As a marketing leader, I would never want to work at an organization where someone just says, here's a product, go market it. When you get to the C-level, you're part of the decisions about where the company's going. By the time you get to the tactical part of launching a product, I've been part of the whole process and so I already understand the value proposition. I already understand why this is going to be a powerful solution for the market. I already understand how a rep can be successful selling that. So I would encourage anybody in marketing to think that way.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, Stacey, the Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer for ServiceMax, details successful go-to-market strategies that her team followed when launching ServiceMax 360, and she explains the importance of getting to know your customer at all levels in order to create the most effective and seamless customer experience possible. Main Takeaways:Know Your Audience:  As a marketer, you have to constantly be thinking about new ways to consistently delight your audience. This means regularly improving your products and services with them in mind. For ServiceMax, while the “brand” has always been a strong part of the company's customer experience, and its marketing efforts and product will always be rooted in its customer experience.Listening is the Secret Sauce: It may sound simple, but by listening and asking your audience what their pain points are, and where their businesses are struggling, their answers can give you insights into their overall goals and how they can utilize your products within their companies. Know Your Role: As a CMO or head of marketing, once you reach the C-level, you are no longer just an extension of the marketing team. Instead, your decisions now guide the direction of the entire organization, so you have to make sure that the marketing strategies fit in with the overall vision and business goals of the company. ---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.---This message is brought to you by Salesforce.Hey marketers. Today’s B2B buyers are more complex than ever. And every buying committee has different needs and goals.Salesforce can help.We'll show you how to put each and every customer at the center of your B2B marketing strategy. And you'll learn how top brands like Lyft approach account-based marketing.Salesforce. Market to every account. Speak to every buyer.Find free B2B marketing and ABM resources at https://sfdc.co/every-buyer 

This is a new episode of the KVD Service Podcast. We regularly talk to service experts and decision makers about current topics on technical service, classic customer service and digital services. Today: Remote services – How to ensure continuity and growth in a post-pandemic economy? What impact does Corona have on field service management? And now that much has shifted to a digital or virtual environment - how do virtual offerings become a positive customer experience? We talk about this in the latest episode of the KVD Service Podcast with Coen Jeukens, Vice President of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax (www.servicemax.com). He talks about the impact he sees on the service business, specifically in terms of finance, maintenance and customer relations. He also discusses effective asset management strategies for service. The moderation is performed by Michael Braun. Information on the service association KVD e.V. at www.kvd.de.

Al Ghous is the Global Chief Information Security Officer at Envision Digital, a global AIoT technology organization. Prior to Envision Digital, Al served as Chief Security Officer at ServiceMax and was previously responsible for Cloud Platform, Product, and IoT security at GE Digital. Al has been in the Cyber Security industry for over 20 years contributing in different capacities from Product Security and Risk Management to Privacy and Security Architecture. Al has held other leadership roles in organizations such as Ernst and Young, Oracle, Kaiser Permanente, and Informatica to name a few. Al is active in the Cyber Security industry and part of several industry organizations and consortiums, as well as a member of several advisory boards. As an Advisor, Al takes pride in helping Founders focus on product development while maturing their Security posture to attract customers and investors alike.

This week we're excited to welcome Stacey Epstein, 91C. Stacey is the Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at ServiceMax and a go-to-market expert—having served as the first head of marketing at both ServiceMax and SuccessFactors when each was a small startup. At SuccessFactors, Stacey helped lead the team from $10m to over $150m in revenue, and was instrumental in the company's IPO in 2007 and subsequent acquisition by SAP. At ServiceMax, Stacey joined the founding team at less than $1m in ARR and lead the marketing function through 6 years of triple-digit growth, departing just prior to the $1b acquisition by GE. Most recently Stacey was CEO of Zinc, a real-time communication app for field service workers, which was acquired by ServiceMax in 2019. In addition to graduating from Emory College in 1991 as an English major, Stacey was a four-time all-conference soccer player. She is a fierce advocate for women and parents in the workplace, and has published numerous articles in Fast Company, Recode, Fortune, and Forbes, among others. Her writings can be found at staceyepstein.com.

Mauro Paretti had always longed to be part of a company with an international work environment where he could collaborate with people across the globe. After studying marketing in his native Italy, he worked his way up in the industry through roles at companies like HP and CA Technologies. Mauro now works as senior marketing manager and acting EMEA marketing team leader at ServiceMax, a global field service software provider that helps companies keep the world up and running. In this interview, Shaheen Samavati sits down with Mauro to talk about his approach to localizing content for audiences, the interactive projects ServiceMax has developed with the software company CEROS, and how the use of LinkedIn's new broadcast feature, LinkedIn Live, has helped his company connect more closely with audiences this year.

In this episode, Pat Oldenburg defines Total Addressable Market (TAM) and shares ServiceMax’s formula for calculating it. He describes how the pandemic has shifted the company and the process of discovering accounts, as well as how he’s thinking about sales and marketing alignment post-covid. Pat then offers great advice for someone looking to build their TAM. Contact Pat Oldenburg | Follow us on LinkedIn

Meet Gajan Retnasaba. Gajan is the founder of Spiralyze, a Conversion Rate Optimization & A/B testing company. Spiralyze runs experiments on clients web pages to convert more of their traffic into leads and sales. Spiralyze has generated over $7 billion in value for clients including Medallia, CrowdStrike, Okta, NBA, NFL, MLB, ViaSat, American Express Global Business Travel, Stitch Fix, Neil Patel, RStudio, Netflix, Lowes, Blue Nile, Pepsi, ServiceMax, and Dreamhost. Gajan is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Prior to Spiralyze, Gajan worked at Jones Day and McKinsey & Company. Visit Gajan on the Web at https://spiralyze.com. Chapters 00:00 Sabir Welcomes Gajan Retnasaba 11:31 A Lesson Learned From IKEA 13:51 Always Make Steady Changes 16:05 Test, Test, and Test Again 19:30 Practicality vs Aesthetics 21:23 What is AB Testing? 25:18 A/B Testing in Action 37:19 The Quirks of A/B Testing 38:10 The Most Important Tool for Conversion Rate Optimization 43:11 Biased vs Unbiased Review Prompts 44:03 The Other Side of the Answer 49:46 Testing in the Real World 52:36 Do You Need a Big Budget for A/B Testing? 54:05 Do The Basics 58:03 Billion Dollar Tip We covered lots of conversion rate optimization methods and how to do A/B testing to growth hack your business. He also shared a $1 billion expert insight as one of his final insights. Watch the video interview here and take notes. https://growthbysabir.com/home/conversion-rate-optimization-with-gajan-retnasaba-100000-expert-insights-thisweekwithsabir-episode-017 Catch up with all the #ThisWeekWithSabir episode here: https://growthbysabir.com/#articles --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sabir-semerkant/support

If you are building a CI program from scratch, you need to hear from Tracy Berry at ServiceMax.

In this episode of the Week in Review, we discuss recent developments regarding dicamba, progress on the CFAP program, red meat demand overseas, and how Compac is levering ServiceMax’s field service technology to keep their service operations running smoothly and keep workers safe during COVID-19. 

This week on DisrupTV, we interviewed Paul Daugherty, Group Chief Executive Technology & Chief Technology Officer at Accenture, Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer at ServiceMax, and Steve Wilson, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday. Brought to you by Constellation Executive Network: constellationr.com/CEN.

While many are able to work from home during the current pandemic, field service workers by nature don't have this option. In this special edition episode, Amanda Del Buono is joined by Stacey Epstein, chief marketing officer and customer experience officer at ServiceMax, to discuss how organizations and individuals can stay safe while keeping essential equipment up and running. Read the full transcript. Visit the new Field Service Job Finder from ServiceMax and Krios at https://www.fieldservicefinder.com/

In this episode, we discuss Trailhead chat, ServiceMax, Coronavirus travel concerns and conference cancellations, The CMO Club acquisition, and ODQA.

This week, we welcome Al Ghous, VP and Head of Security at ServiceMax, to discuss Startup Security - It s Everyone s Business! In the Leadership Articles, Unexpected Companies Produce Some of the Best CEOs, Security Think Tank: Hero or villain? Creating a no-blame culture, The Guy Who Invented Inbox Zero Says We're All Doing It Wrong, Enterprise-scale companies adopting Azure over AWS, and more!   Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/BSWEpisode158 Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes!   Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly

This week, we welcome Al Ghous, VP and Head of Security at ServiceMax, to discuss Startup Security - It s Everyone s Business! In the Leadership Articles, Unexpected Companies Produce Some of the Best CEOs, Security Think Tank: Hero or villain? Creating a no-blame culture, The Guy Who Invented Inbox Zero Says We're All Doing It Wrong, Enterprise-scale companies adopting Azure over AWS, and more!   Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/BSWEpisode158 Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes!   Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly

ABM has developed into a proven strategy for helping marketers identify and target named accounts that are most likely to contribute to pipeline goals. In this episode, Pat Oldenburg of ServiceMax shares why his team made the pivot towards being more account-focused and how this has led marketing to be more accountable when it comes to pipeline contribution. Listen as Pat goes into detail on how he and his team defined and implemented an ABM strategy, how it has better enabled sale reps within the organization, how they’re keeping their data clean, and more.

Balaji Subramanian of ServiceMax says that gaining mindshare of channel partners isn't enough: you have to win their hearts and minds. In this episode he describes a whole range of ways to make a superior channel program that will drive results. 

ABM has developed into a proven strategy for helping marketers identify and target named accounts that are most likely to contribute to pipeline goals. In this episode, Pat Oldenburg of ServiceMax shares why his team made the pivot towards being more account-focused and how this has led marketing to be more accountable when it comes to pipeline contribution. Listen as Pat goes into detail on how he and his team defined and implemented an ABM strategy, how it has better enabled sale reps within the organization, how they’re keeping their data clean, and more.

Stacey has extensive experience in generating demand, fueling growth, and building brand name global recognition for technology companies. She brings two decades of cloud, social, and mobile enterprise technology experience to her role as CEO of Zinc. Prior to Zinc, Stacey was Chief Marketing Officer at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth leading to a $1b acquisition by GE in 2017. Before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. Stacey pioneered the marketing function at SuccessFactors in 2005, and was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. Prior to SuccessFactors, Stacey held leadership roles at Oracle, Clarify, and ServiceSource. Stacey holds a BA in English from Emory University, where she was a four time first team all-conference soccer player. She loves deep steep powder, chasing around her two young daughters, and cheering loudly as her husband coaches basketball. She frequently writes on leadership, innovation, and women in business for Inc, Fast Company, and BizJournals, which can be found at staceyepstein.com.

Ron Huddleston, Chief Partner Officer at Twilio, joins the AppChat Podcast to discuss the importance of building out ecosystems and the differences he has seen building multiple ecosystems for various companies. Other subjects include breaking down various ecosystem models, how Huddleston's previous experience prepared him for working at Twilio, and the importance of trust and credibility in the industry. Here are the key topics, with timestamps, as well as the full interview transcript: Key Topics 00:00-01:58 Introducing the AppChat and our guest, Twilio's Chief Partner Officer Ron Huddleston 1:59-3:28 The challenges of indirect software sales 3:29-8:43 The importance of software companies building out an ISV and/or SI ecosystem 8:44-12:34 The differences in building out an ecosystem for Salesforce and Microsoft 12:35-17:10 The differences between a pure, cloud-based ecosystem, and a hybrid model including cloud and on-premise 17:11-20:02 How much Huddleston uses his previous experiences building ecosystems for Twilio, and how much he has to continue to discover and invent 20:03-25:54 The importance of trust and credibility when building out ecosystems 25:55-29:06 Building an app and sticking to the commitment you made to your ecosystem 29:07-30:22 Closing out and how to get in touch Full Transcript Intro: 00:01 You're listening to the AppChat, a podcast focused on SaaS growth strategies, plus successes in the Salesforce ecosystem, and beyond. Here's your host, CodeScience CEO, Brian Walsh. Brian Walsh: 00:14 All right. We're back on the AppChat Podcast. And today, I'm joined by Ron Huddleston, who, Ron, you have an incredible background when it comes to building out ISV ecosystems. Let me get this right. So you're currently the Chief Partner Officer at Twilio. Ron Huddleston: 00:31 Yeah. Brian Walsh: 00:32 Before that, CVP, One Commercial Partner organization at Microsoft. Ron Huddleston: 00:35 Yeah. Brian Walsh: 00:36 SVP of the AppExchange at Salesforce. Ron Huddleston: 00:38 Yep. Brian Walsh: 00:39 And started the OEM, ISV program at Oracle, where you were vice president. Ron Huddleston: 00:44 Yes. Brian Walsh: 00:45 Are there any bigger partner programs in the world to run than that? Ron Huddleston: 00:51 Amazon, maybe, now? Brian Walsh: 00:53 Maybe now, yeah. Ron Huddleston: 00:54 Yeah. Yeah, they're breaking new ground. But the Microsoft thing was definitely a big one. They've all been really fun. I do think that the folks at companies that get to build ecosystems, ISV, or SI, or any type of partner ecosystem, I think that it's probably the most fun job you can have at a bigger technology company, because you get exposed. It's not the same thing over and over. You get to really understand how to work with other folks and understand what's important to them. And so I stuck with it -- it was probably my 20th job at Oracle -- and when I found it and started building it, I just realized it was the most fun, like exciting, interesting, technically satisfying, from a business perspective, satisfying thing you could really do. So just from a personal perspective, I think it's probably the most fun you can have in cloud technology for a job. Unless you're like the CEO of a startup, or doing what you're doing, like building things. But if you're going to work for somebody else, I think it's a great job. Brian Walsh: 01:59 But I mean, I find that sometimes indirect sales, especially indirect software sales, can be extremely challenging. Like you're not actually doing that final license sale. You're lining up the partners and enabling them. I mean, is there something wrong in your head? Ron Huddleston: 02:14 No, there's not. It does carry its own set of complexities. But the strange thing is, whether it was on-premise or the cloud, those complexities repeat each other over, and over, and over again. So there really, after 20-odd years of doing this, there's not much you haven't seen, because where things get complicated is around human behavior, not necessarily around bringing really great solutions, and great partners, and technology together to solve problems. That's kind of the easy part, just to like address customer problems. Where things get a little crunchy is how human start, where things can get complicated, is when you're aligning different people, different organizations, different teams. That's where things get a little more complicated. I think everything up to that is not as complicated. But again, it's a pattern. And the patterns tend to repeat themselves. So you can sort of see around corners, the longer you do these kind of things, which makes it easier every time. This is, what, my third, fourth- Brian Walsh: 03:18 Fourth one. Ron Huddleston: 03:19 It kind of makes it a little easier every time you do it because you know, I probably made 10,000 mistakes. And you only make the same mistake three or four times. Brian Walsh: 03:29 Eventually, you get it right. So why an ecosystem? I mean, there's a huge amount of effort and investment. Why is it important for a software company to actually build out an ISV and/or SI ecosystem? Ron Huddleston: 03:44 Yeah. There's a lot of reasons. It depends on, are we talking about the technology company themselves that want to build an ecosystem? Brian Walsh: 03:51 Yeah. Ron Huddleston: 03:52 So you have to be a bigger company in order to do that, obviously. It's really hard to do it, otherwise. You can certainly build a small, little portfolio of folks that you work with if you're a smaller company. But there's nothing better than a broad ecosystem because it does a couple things. First things first is, if there's any way, shape, and form you're trying to prove out the sort of platform nature of the technology that you're trying to provide, the long road to get to that level of credibility is trying to do it yourself; trying to hire all the people in the world with the right expertise to sit down with a customer and explain to them, "No, bet on us. We're future-proofed. And you can do all of these things with us. We're a platform," it is really hard. The easier way to do it is to work with an ecosystem of technology, or IP, ISVs, and SIs; and the ones that are trusted in the space, that are maybe already trusted by the customers that you want to serve, and work with them to have them understand how your platform can help. And then build what's essentially, if those are the ingredients, then you know, the recipe book is how all those ingredients come together to help essentially cook a meal, like serve a beautiful meal for the customer, right? And so that's why it's a cool job. You get to be the chef, kind of. That's a good analogy, I'm going to use that analogy -- 20 years, I just discovered a new analogy. But you know, if you think about it that way, as ecosystems, as, you know, sure, you can call it one broad ecosystem, but really, it's a bunch of small solution maps, or what I was just calling recipes. It's a group of technologies, partners, companies, expertise, that solve particular problems. And no one company can really solve anything complicated on their own, really. Like it is just hard to do that over, and over, and over, and over again. You know, if you want to be broad-based, it makes it ... If you want to be a broad solution, like a platform, it makes it really hard to also solve problems, complicated problems, by yourself, right? If you want to stay really narrow and be like a really verticalized application or SI- Brian Walsh: 06:12 You can go super deep. Ron Huddleston: 06:13 You can go super deep. You can solve things on your own. But if you want to be big and broad, it's just the permutations of options are almost impossible. That's why ecosystems are so important. They drive credibility, but they also are the only way to solve really hard, complicated problems if you're trying to solve a lot of them. Those are the two reasons that it's great for the partner, or the platform, but it's great for all these companies that are sort of looking. It's great for cutting-edge companies. Like in the cloud, it was a wonderful thing. People actually all start relational databases. Like there were a lot of companies that were building up relational database practices back in the day. And there were these little, small startups that were building relational databases, or were driving Java for, like J2EE or something. Brian Walsh: 07:05 Yep. Ron Huddleston: 07:05 And I know this is going to sound really old. Brian Walsh: 07:07 We, you and I sound ancient right now. But keep going. It's great. We're reminiscing. Ron Huddleston: 07:10 Yeah. But the point was these companies, these smaller companies that would never have -- it was going to be a long time until they were big enough to where people really get exposed to them. Having an ecosystem, being part of a partner's ecosystem, of a vendor, a big platform's ecosystem, helped the companies that were the best, the most innovative, had the best technologies, sort of punch above their weight class, and could help change the market really quickly. So it's this symbiotic relationship between these platform players that need partners for the two, you know, for lots of reasons, but the two reasons I highlighted; but it's also great for partners, for ISVs and SIs, because it helps the best rise to the top. It helps the best innovate. And you know, it also, if you are the type of SIs or ISVs that are specialized in a particular place or industry, it helps you get access to customers where you might not get access before. So it's a real symbiotic thing when it's working really well, and nothing stands in the way, and there's no friction. And it's really just about sort of, you know, matchmaking. Like, you know, you're a cook. All your ingredients are great. You cook the best stuff. Everything, your oven works. Your waiters are awesome. I guess waiters would be sales in this analogy, right? Brian Walsh: 08:31 Yeah. Ron Huddleston: 08:32 Yeah. The waiters understand stuff. Brian Walsh: 08:35 Sales ops are your line chefs, right? Ron Huddleston: 08:37 Right, there you go. I'll work this analogy out at some point. I think it has legs. I'm thinking about it. Brian Walsh: 08:44 There's always an interesting thing, like if I compare where Microsoft has embraced their ecosystem, and I look at where Salesforce has, around capital efficiency, right? Because in the Salesforce world, there was almost no investment, outside of VC investment, almost no investment of, "Hey, let's invest in you to bring this product to market." Whereas we've seen, even on the Oracle and Microsoft side, lots of investment into ISVs to help them get started with an ecosystem. Ron Huddleston: 09:09 Yeah. I think Salesforce would argue, particularly back in the day when they were building it up, when we were building it up, where we didn't really have as much market presence. There are two things that companies can do to invest in you. They can certainly invest time or technology, but they can also -- I'm sorry, they can certainly invest money or technology, but they can also invest time and access. And at Salesforce, the way I pulled the AppExchange together was, you know, there were limitations around technology, and dollars, and investment dollars, which eventually got solved in one way, or shape, or form. But there was really very little limitation to time and access that could be provided. And so the big strength that Salesforce had at the time was, they were leading in the cloud. So they had, they were innovators, had access and had a sales organization. So a lot of the beginnings of that ecosystem were built around people receiving essentially go-to-market support, help, and guidance from Salesforce, in return for their technical investment in building something with Salesforce. And that was the trade-off that they made. Microsoft is a different beast, and they grew up through partners, and they always had partners. But they'd gotten to such a point where they were so dominant in the marketplace that they'd essentially become demand fulfillment. The partner channel was super optimized for really educated customers to come in and want to buy something. And they would go to very specific partners that would then fulfill that. And it was very educated demand fulfillment to a very educated market, which is entirely different than what we were setting up the One Commercial Partner team to do, which was to create demand. So, instead of having 1,000 points of connection with super-specialized partners, have partners that could show up in front of customers and say, "What problem do you have? What question do you have for my answers?" And then they could represent the full cadre of everything that Microsoft could do. You know, it's a huge technology portfolio. So they were just really limited historically because partners had to sort of pick their lane and stick with it. And so one of the things that's a great thing we did there, was break that down and only create very few lanes. So partners were expected to really lead the way and create demand. But in order to do that, we also had to change the finances. We had to change economics. We had to create a lot of incentives for the direct sales organization to work with them, which is a big part of it, too, because selling stuff, versus taking orders, is expensive. And so we had to make sure the partners could make money doing it. And so in that particular case, you know, the trade-off was, being able to represent Microsoft across the board is a tough thing to do, but if they'd invest their time, and energy, and attention, in learning how to sell and create demand, we made the economics work so that they could get a payback, which is a little different. It's almost the opposite of what Salesforce was doing. And so they're just very different situations. Brian Walsh: 12:29 Got it. Ron Huddleston: 12:30 But like I said, you know, you do this long enough, you've seen almost everything. Brian Walsh: 12:35 Well, let's actually study one more difference within that, which is you had a pure, cloud-based model. And then within Microsoft, you actually had this hybrid. You had cloud, right, like this emerging cloud ecosystem with Office 365 and Dynamics. You also had this gigantic on-prem, you know, basis of licenses. Is there a huge difference between those two types of ecosystems? Or are they basically the same? Ron Huddleston: 12:59 No. There really isn't. I mean, the economic models are different. But enough folks, I would say 8 years ago, 10 years ago -- God, 10 years ago, 15? I don't know ... Like 2008, 10 years ago, 2007, 2006, '07, '08, that's when the financial model differences, forget the technical differences, the relationship differences, the functional selling -- Brian Walsh: 13:24 Customer success, all that stuff. Ron Huddleston: 13:25 All that stuff, the actual financial models of how people expected to generate revenue and make a living, being a technology company or a consulting company, they were so different between cloud and on-prem that moving financial models was the primary thing holding people back from taking the step to the cloud. People liked the technology, but they couldn't take the jump. Like a lot of companies failed because they tried to put a foot in both camps, and you just couldn't. There's one financial model, on-prem, it's very short-term focused; one financial model, cloud, is very longterm focused. And if you're trying to serve both masters, you'll make bad, suboptimal decisions. And so I had a bunch of rules about the cloud. One of them was, you have to pick one or the other. You have to like, divest to one or the other. I think those days have changed, where even if people are doing a lot of on-prem stuff, like there's even the Microsoft SIs, or resellers, they've worked it out in such a way, through financing, through managed services, through something that they're emulating software as a service, financially. And so the technological flip is just a matter of time and opportunity. It wasn't a matter of this big burden, I'm sorry, barrier, an obstacle which is changing their whole financial model, which is really hard. I mean, I literally had sought out, the same way you guys were product development outsourcers, I'd sought out financial development outsourcers, as well, that helped to finance companies through the gap, like the two or three-year revenue gap when they make the transition, because the financial model transition was a lot harder than the technical transition, back in the day. Now, I don't think it's as hard. At Microsoft, it's, you know, some of the companies are so big, I think that the inertia is probably harder than the finances, you know? Just the daily grind, inertia of things makes things tough. Brian Walsh: 15:17 And I think some of your work in there really paid off; the Lighter Capital helping with MapAnything. Ron Huddleston: 15:22 Oh, yeah, I bet they made a crushing at that. Yeah. Brian Walsh: 15:26 Yeah. And now, I think Series D, and they're gigantic. Ron Huddleston: 15:29 Is Lighter Capital doing pretty well? I haven't talked to those guys in a while. Brian Walsh: 15:32 I think they're doing great. Ron Huddleston: 15:34 It's a great business model, I mean. Brian Walsh: 15:35 It is. Ron Huddleston: 15:35 Yeah. Brian Walsh: 15:36 It's interesting. They were so far ahead on that non-equity based funding for it. And now, I see Indie.vc. I see a lot of players coming in. Ron Huddleston: 15:44 Yeah. No, it's a good way to do it. Here at Twilio, there's so much. The funny thing is, it really feels a lot like the initial cloud, call it, revolution in 2007-08. Brian Walsh: 15:57 Yep. Ron Huddleston: 15:58 It's just in communications. And there's a lot of folks that are in the exact same spot; not that they're in financial, a big financial difference, model-wise. But telecommunications is like a different financial model, in a weird way. It's very like, usage oriented. It's got spikes. It's got a lot of weird things they're not used to, particularly if people are selling cloud seat kind of stuff. It's just a different sort of world for them. And a lot of folks don't have specialization in a lot of these things. And so, you know, building things like PDOs and financial development outsourcers are things that we're going to have to do here at Twilio as well, because there's thousands and thousands of ISVs and SIs that, whether they know it or not, are going to be using Twilio in the next couple years, because it just fits. Everybody who's moved to the cloud, there's probably an opportunity -- and touched a customer in some way, shape, or form -- there's an opportunity for them to work with Twilio. And you know, we've just got to make it easier. That was one of the things that, you were around at Salesforce when we did that, too. We just made it easier for people. Brian Walsh: 17:04 Totally. Well, let's jump into Twilio while we're here. You're assembling an amazing team. Ron Huddleston: 17:10 Yeah. They're good people. Brian Walsh: 17:11 It seems like you're applying all of your lessons from the past, you know, experiences building an ecosystem. How much do you have to continue to discover and invent? How much of this is just pulling out your playbook and running with it? Ron Huddleston: 17:24 You know, a lot of it is playbook stuff. I will say, the difference between communications technology, like it carries a lot of legacy with it. Like there is, you know, a whole lot of underlying technology that, if you're unfamiliar with it, which I am, you know, like the seven layers. That's just, there's a bunch of crazy stuff. Brian Walsh: 17:45 Yep. Ron Huddleston: 17:45 If you're unfamiliar with it, there's a lot going on there that has significant material impacts on business models that could work or couldn't work. So you bring the same playbook, and then you have this set of realities, constraints, and the technology as it exists, that then make things viable or not viable. And it is, you know, it's fundamentally a bit of a different thing, because it's a very API-forward company, which leads people down a lot of weird roads. Like what is an SI? What is an ISV? Which, by the way, we can get philosophical on this. Brian Walsh: 18:23 How do you differentiate? Ron Huddleston: 18:26 Like at Salesforce, people would just like get their heads wrapped around an axle, because you know, back in the day, when we were creating the partner program, I always tried to explain reselling, and OEMing, and trying to get like, I think, Veeva kept it on their first contract to sell Salesforce underneath their technology set. People were like, you know, "The technology is staying here. These are ours, it's in our -- this isn't the Salesforce," what do they call those things? I'm sorry. Do you remember those, at Salesforce, they have a name for the PODs that- Brian Walsh: 18:59 The ORGs? Ron Huddleston: 19:01 Not the ORGs, but whatever. It's Salesforce property. We're running it in our own data centers. Brian Walsh: 19:07 Right, in a POD. Ron Huddleston: 19:07 So how are you reselling anything? I'm like, "Well, it's, you know," even, and then licensing, which is just a human, you know, construct. It's not real. Like all these things, applying them to the cloud, it's semi-nonsensical, but it is a way to put these constructs together, and rules together, that help enable ecosystems to exist and thrive. There's something that they can sell, that they can put margin on, that they can build a business on. There's something that they can learn about, and then configure, and then leave with the customer. If you don't have the concepts of ownership, and passing ownership, and control, which don't make a lot of sense when you think about like a multi-tenant cloud, but if you don't have those things, you can't build businesses. And so, you know, a lot of it is building the faith that these human constructs exist, and that you can sell them, which for API companies, is a new thing. Like, I don't think AWS even does that yet. Brian Walsh: 19:59 No. But- Ron Huddleston: 20:00 It's weird, I know that I'm like waxing philosophical, but it is a- Brian Walsh: 20:03 But I mean, it all comes down to trust, right? Ron Huddleston: 20:06 Yeah. Brian Walsh: 20:07 You have to build trust with this partner that you will create these things, that you gave them your word, that they can actually invest millions of dollars to go forward with it. Ron Huddleston: 20:16 Yeah. Trust and credibility, in this space, is kind of what it's all about. And it's a thing about companies, too, is you know, they can, over time, their perspective on the importance of ecosystems and what the value is can change. But if you're leading up those ecosystem efforts, like you've got to try hard as hell to live up to the commitments, and consistencies, and visions that you put out there -- to the point where you're willing to sort of, you know, throw yourself in front of a train to make sure that like, you know, people don't change the philosophies you put in place, because people are betting their lives, their businesses, on what you're laying out as the vision and value of the partner program you're putting out there. And you're making these commitments, and anything that drives inconsistency, anything that's not committed, anything that violates trust in those things is a huge, huge problem. Like you know, you can spend years building up the trust that's required to build an ecosystem. And in one day, you can blow it. So that's, by far, the most important thing that you need people to understand who are setting up partner programs, or building teams, or you know, maybe looking to hire someone to build up their organization. Make sure that she or he, you know, the first thing out of their mouth needs to be like trust and consistency because without that, none of the rest of this really matters. Brian Walsh: 21:48 Yeah. And it's also, I think, the confidence that these larger organizations are actually going to stay in it, right? Ron Huddleston: 21:54 Yeah. Brian Walsh: 21:55 You know? This is not going to be a one-year test, then we're going away, because we're asking the likes of major companies to actually invest their future in this opportunity. Ron Huddleston: 22:04 Yeah. And you know, a lot of them don't take the jump and wait a year, wait two years, to see. I mean, the cloud took forever. It took four or five years for the bigger companies to jump. Brian Walsh: 22:15 Yep. Ron Huddleston: 22:15 But now, things are happening a lot faster. But there'll still be some companies that'll wait a year or two to jump. But you'll recall this, the ones that made it first in the cloud, the ones that were really successful were all the first ones, the people who moved fast. The consulting companies that moved fast, the ISVs that moved fast, the companies that jumped in there and took the risks were the ones that succeeded in the end. The ones that played on the sidelines, unless they were super dominant, they were playing catch-up, and still are. Brian Walsh: 22:44 And you watch the outcomes and success of those. ServiceMax, I mean, that was coming about when Service Cloud wasn't even fully baked, and almost a billion dollar exit. Veeva went public. DocuSign just went public. Ron Huddleston: 22:56 Yeah. Those were all the early ones, yeah. Brian Walsh: 22:58 Yep. They all came in. All right. So there is a PayPal Mafia: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman. Ron Huddleston: 23:06 I don't know any of them very well. Brian Walsh: 23:08 Yeah, I know, but that's your social circle, I'm sure. You go surfing with them. I propose that there's actually an AppExchange Mafia as well now. We have you out there, Avanish at ServiceNow, Leyla took back over of the AppExchange, Todd Surdey is now at FinancialForce, Sean Hogan at Nintex, Brian Snyder at GE. That original crew, those people who were there on those early, Wild West days, are out there in the SaaS ecosystems. Ron Huddleston: 23:36 Yeah. Ross Eberhart's over here. Mike Rosenbaum's running product over there. Like, yeah, and a lot of trust amongst all those people. And we will, I'd love to work with any of those people. Avanish and I are always trying to figure out how we can do stuff. That's just a great group of people that, I think a lot of them learned a ton through that phase. There's even some folks that were from Oracle that are still in the Mafia, if you're going to call it that. Like, because Molly Bellero Fischer is still doing it. Ross is still doing it. Anders is still doing it. Ryan Begin's still doing it. Annie Heppberger, I think, runs partners now for Oracle. Brian Walsh: 24:23 Brent Floyd. Ron Huddleston: 24:24 Yeah. There's a lot going on; Kevin Walsh is still doing it. He's an Oracle person. Yeah. There are- Brian Walsh: 24:30 Joanne Pantuso is still doing it. Ron Huddleston: 24:32 That's right. Once you get a taste of working in ecosystems and partners, you don't really want to do other stuff, just because it's so fulfilling to help companies do something new, and grow, and to be part of their story. It's really fun. Like I said in the very beginning, in the opening when we were talking, if you could, you know, I had a lot of, I probably had 15 different jobs at Oracle. And this was by far the most fun. And I was a young man back then. And I had decided like, this is the thing I wanted to do. If I was going to work for somebody else, this is it, because there's no beating it. Like there's nothing, there's really not beating it once you get it going. That's why Twilio is so exciting, by the way. It's like the new Wild West. Brian Walsh: 25:13 Yep. Ron Huddleston: 25:13 It just reminds me of like the cloud. And a lot of those people are the same people, the Mafia you just mentioned, there's a lot of those same people that all recognize the same thing I do. Which means like, you're not running around saying, "Oh, trust me. This happened before." There's a bunch of people here that have lived it and are like, "Oh, my God. This is so interesting. It's exactly the same. And let's-" Brian Walsh: 25:34 We get to do it right the first time, this time. Ron Huddleston: 25:35 Yeah, yeah. Here's the thing -- we did it right before. I think I'd argue the Microsoft One Commercial Partner is set up the right way. We'll do it right here, it's just things are happening much faster. Instead of taking three or four years, it's happening in like 12 months. Brian Walsh: 25:52 Wow. Ron Huddleston: 25:53 It may be faster. It's crazy. Brian Walsh: 25:55 Well, and strategically, like technology-wise, adding in the whole serverless infrastructure, so you can host code now. You've got Flex, so you can start building out sort of UIs and the whole thing. Ron Huddleston: 26:05 Yeah, it has a face. Yep, that's a real thing. You'd be surprised how much having a face matters to LOB leaders, versus developers. Brian Walsh: 26:12 And I bet it also adds to some of the defensibility of it, right? Like, there's less attrition as you start adding even more and more layers, people can get deeper into your system, rather than just an API. Ron Huddleston: 26:23 Yeah. The thing about Flex, the most interesting part about Flex is the underlying technology. I don't want to give percentages, but I'd say a vast majority of the underlying technology has been around, you know, started 10 years ago, and it's been enhanced ever since. The moment that Flex came out, where it was a way to put a face, a UI, on what was possible in Twilio, the interest was a thousandfold, because it opened up people's minds to what Twilio was. Versus an API, which is a very difficult thing for non-developers to understand. You put a UI on it and explain what it is, you've just cracked open a huge market that should have been already there. It's just, people didn't understand what this, what Twilio could possibly do. And Flex wrapped that up nicely. Now the challenge is, when a platform, an API platform, which is a beautiful offering for SIs and ISVs, because it's like the cookbook that you need to do anything, which is just perfect for a partnering system. Brian Walsh: 27:21 And it's so damn easy to use at Twilio. Ron Huddleston: 27:23 Yeah. When you build an app, though, you, no matter what, unless you're picking exactly the right space, are probably going to bounce up into some elbows of people that have already built on your platform. And so, same problem at Salesforce, same problem at Microsoft, when you start expanding what you do and putting, you know, faces on things, and making new applications, like you mentioned Service Cloud and ServiceMax, that is a, you've got to tread very slowly, and know what you're doing, and make very considered decisions, because the chance that you are violating a commitment that you made to your ecosystem is probably very high. Now Twilio had never had a partner program, and really made a ton of commitments in that direction. But understanding the effects of things like this, and what's important, and what's not, is critical to our business going forward. And George and Jeff totally get it and understand. And so the idea of having governance, like a buy-build partner governance, and the impact that doing any of those actions, besides partner, if you buy or build, taking all that into consideration is one of the reasons why I feel really good about being here. Because they're super dead serious about it. And what they're focused on is, if they do buy or build, they're doing it underneath, like on the platform layer. Like even Flex, sure, it's a face. It's a UI. But if you really look at it, it's like an SDK for a UI. You know what I mean? It's not really a -- you could technically use it out of the box, but no one will. Brian Walsh: 29:02 Right. It's just the starting point. "Here, let me help you imagine this." Ron Huddleston: 29:06 Right, yeah. Brian Walsh: 29:08 That's fantastic. Well Ron, thank you very much for joining us. What's the best way, if somebody either wants to find a great job in an ecosystem, or they're looking to partner with Twilio, for them to get ahold of you and your team? Ron Huddleston: 29:20 If people want to do either of those things, the best way to get partnering going is to go online, and go to "become a partner," and go to the community. And then you'll get routed to like the person that you'll, you know, one of the 50-odd people that you'd be dealing with in to learn and become a partner. And there's people that are there just to quickly follow up and make sure you know how to do it and what's important. But if you're interested in getting a job, you can email me at rhuddleston@twilio.com, because we're hiring. We're going to hire another, you know -- lots. We're in super hiring phase right now. Brian Walsh: 29:59 Fantastic. Well, Ron, thank you very much for taking the time today, and glad we got this scheduled, and finally do it. Ron Huddleston: 30:04 Yeah, no. I'm very, very impressed by your fancy equipment and the level of professionalism in putting this podcast together. Brian Walsh: 30:11 Hey, look, I've grown up just as much as you have, okay? Ron Huddleston: 30:15 Yes, clearly you have. Brian Walsh: 30:18 All right, Ron. Thank you so much, everybody. Ron Huddleston: 30:20 All right. I'll see you around the water cooler. Bye. Outro: 30:22 Thanks for listening to this episode of the AppChat. Don't miss an episode. Visit AppChatPodcast.com, or subscribe on iTunes. Until next time, don't make success an accident.

It would be tempting to put Zinc - founded by two former Yammer employees - into the same bucket with Slack, Atlassian, Microsoft Teams and the myriad other “team collaboration” tools that have popped up in recent years. But Zinc is a mobile messaging app aimed at a completely different audience. In fact, most of Zinc’s users don’t have desks. Their “offices” are trucks, delivery vehicles, or far-flung job sites. This is a massive number of users – in fact, according to Google, “deskless workers” account for between 72 and 80 percent of the global workforce. Deskless workers universally despise email and rarely even use a computer. Zinc, in many cases, will end up replacing pen and paper within an organization. In others, it replaces existing digital tools throughout much of the company, including email and texting. Think of Zinc as a highly secure, all-mode messaging app meant for business communications. Zinc customers include companies within the construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality industries who have to be in constant communication with each other to solve on-the-ground problems for customers. I chat with Stacey Epstein who reveals more about her story discusses where enterprise communication is headed in the context of deskless workers. We also talk about a recent deal that Zinc struck with GE Digital’s ServiceMax, one designed to allow field service teams to communicate in real-time and also access product information. GE understands that field workers who are in-the-know work faster, have higher completion rates and are more engaged than those who aren’t. And, are more likely to help retain customers.

Rajeev Batra is a Partner at Mayfield, a firm that has championed bold entrepreneurs since 1969. Rajeev’s investments at Mayfield include the likes of Crunchbase, SmartRecruiters, Marketo (IPO then taken private by Vista Equity), ServiceMax (acquired by GE Digital) and more incredible companies. Prior to Mayfield, Rajeev was at Mobius (Softbank) Venture Capital and Austin Ventures. Before making the move into VC, Rajeev was on the operational side as an entrepreneur and executive with three of the companies he worked with going public and later being acquired, including the very notable Siebel Systems. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How Rajeev made the transition from successful operator with 3 IPOs under his belt to investing in the next generation of enterprise companies with Mayfield? What does Rajeev mean when he says “startups do not die of starvation, they die of indigestion”? How does this realisation affect Rajeev’s approach to customer profiling and segmenting customers? Why does Rajeev believe that “early product market fit can be misleading”? How does Rajeev look to provide context and action from numbers and analytics in the early days? How does Rajeev feel that founders should approach gross margin from the early days? How should this relationship and thought process towards gross margin change over time? Why does Rajeev believe that retention is the number 1 metric for SaaS founders to focus on? In the stack of metrics, how does this compare to gross margin, CAC/LTV and payback period? 60 Second SaaStr Enterprise investing is spreadsheet investing: True or false? How does Mayfield use an internal budget to align themselves to entrepreneurs? What does Rajeev mean when he says “I look for 2 act opportunities”? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Rajeev Batra

In this episode of IoT Time Podcast, Ken Briodagh, editorial director at IoT Evolution (iotevolutionworld.com), sits down with Lubor Ptacek (@LuborP), VP, Product Marketing, ServiceMax (servicemax.com), recently acquired by GE Digital, to talk about Field Service Management, machine automation, manufacturing and how bad Ken is at pronouncing names (Again.). This episode is sponsored by IoT Evolution Health, the new event focused only on the meeting of IoT and Healthcare. We are currently seeking speaking proposals for the January event. If interested, please visit http://www.iotevolutionhealth.com/conference/call-for-speakers.aspx. Please check out "IoT Time: Evolving Trends in the Internet of Things," a new book by Ken Briodagh about the ongoing influences shaping the IoT. To get a digital copy, download it here for free (www.iotevolutionworld.com/iot-ebook.aspx). A print edition is also available on Amazon for $14.99. To become a sponsor of IoT Time, please email kbriodagh@tmcnet.com or tweet @KenBriodagh.

Stacey Epstein is the CEO @ Zinc, the secure communications platform for workers in front of customers, not computers. They have backing from some of the best in SaaS investing including the likes of Jason Green @ Emergence, CRV with George Zachary and GE Ventures. Prior to Zinc, Stacey was CMO at Banjo. Before Banjo, Stacey was CMO at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Finally, before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. During her tenure with SuccessFactors, Stacey pioneered the marketing function in 2005, and was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How Stacey made her way from Executive Assistant working for another Executive Assistant before moving to CMO and today as CEO? What were the fundamental lessons Stacey took from her career as CMO to now being CEO/ What were some of the hardest elements of the transition? What role should the CEO play in the marketing strategy and execution? What do CEO’s most often get wrong about CMO’s?What is the optimal and most efficient working relationship between CEO and CMO? How does Stacey create alignment and strong and successful communication between the traditionally conflicting sales and marketing? How does transparency help drive better business results? How can one look to instill these values and communication standards on inherited organisations they they did not found? Are there any drawbacks to transparency and communication? 60 Second SaaStr What hires does Stacey wish she had made earlier? What can females do to master the art of negotiating? Recruiting in the valley today, how tough and top tips? When is the right time to hire your CMO? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Stacey Epstein

Stacey Epstein is the CEO of Zinc, a communications platform for deskless workforces. We talk with her about her journey from an assistant to an assistant at Oracle to CEO of a tech startup. She shares her views of work/life balance and explains why communication is so important to all companies.Stacey has extensive experience in generating demand, fueling growth, and building companies from stealth startup to brand-name, global technology organizations. She brings decades of cloud, social, and mobile enterprise technology leadership to Zinc. Most recently, Stacey was Chief Marketing Officer at Banjo. Prior to Banjo, Stacey was CMO at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. During her tenure with SuccessFactors, Stacey pioneered the marketing function in 2005, and was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. Prior to SuccessFactors, Stacey held leadership roles at Oracle, Clarify, and ServiceSource. Stacey holds a BA in English from Emory University, where she earned first team all-conference honors as the starting goalie on the women’s varsity soccer team all four years. She loves deep and steep powder, chasing her two young daughters around her backyard, and cheering loudly as her husband coaches basketball. Stacey’s writing on leadership, innovation, and women in business frequently appears in publications such as Inc., Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.Find more about Zinc at www.zinc.itWatch a demo of Zinc here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fIyc0-vkVY&feature=youtu.beWatch a video about Slack vs Zinc for deskless workers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxKhgswwu7A&feature=youtu.beHere's an article Stacey wrote for Inc. about Lars Dalgaard: https://www.inc.com/stacey-epstein/6-things-i-learned-from-lars-dalgaard.htmlMore about Stacey:https://www.inc.com/author/stacey-epsteinhttp://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/bio/22151/Stacey+Epsteinhttps://www.recode.net/2016/9/9/12851528/diversity-insularity-tech-companies-anil-dashhttps://www.fastcompany.com/3037200/you-know-your-company-needs-more-women-but-do-you-know-why See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Aaron and Brian review the state of The Cloudcast, review the biggest stories in 2016, and make predictions about 2017. Show Links: Get a free eBook from O'Reilly media or use promo code PCBW for a discount - 40% off Print Books and 50% off eBooks and videos 2016 Predictions 2015 Predictions 2014 Predictions Show Notes: Housekeeping: Listens up 70% YoY; 50 Shows in 2016
 2017 will be the 7th year of the show. Thank you to 2016 Sponsors: Intel Cloud For All, Service Now
 [DONATIONS] Krispy Kreme Challenge 2017
 Most Popular Shows: Serverless, DevOps, Containers, Microservices) - all time shows all in 2016
 VC Funding + M&A activities: now over $7.6B ($2.65B VC, $4.98B M&A, 25 acquisitions) - last year closed just north of $5B. 
 The Cloudcast listed on several “watch lists” for Blogs/Podcasts
 ServerlessCast (@serverlesscast) shows (red logo) in your pod-catcher
 Weekly | Bi-Weekly “what to watch” shows ~ 10mins - (blue logo) in your pod-catcher
 “The Technical MBA” project Looking Back at 2016: Tech Acquisitions + M&A + IPO: Oracle bought NetSuite (SaaS consolidation) Dell finalized acquisition of EMC/VMware/Pivotal (Hardware consolidation) Nutanix IPO (down about 23%) Software-Eating the World M&A: Unilever acquires Dollar Shave Club (personality, online only) Walmart acquires Jet (like Amazon.com) GE Digital acquires ServiceMax (field services via cloud) Capital One gives away Echo at AWS re:Invent Prediction Topic 1 - Technology Enterprises and the Public Cloud - how does this evolve? 
 Containers (ecosystem) Serverless 
 AI, Machine Learning, Data Gravity
 SDN? Remember that?
 (Hyper) Converged Infrastructure Prediction Topic 2 - The Economy VC funding has been down. Do we see fire-sale acquisitions?
 Have VC moved out of the segment that we discuss on The Cloudcast? 
 Will more legacy vendors go private-equity (eg. Cisco, Juniper, NetApp, etc.)?
 Most have thrown in the towel on visions of public cloud
 If the economy goes bad, does that help SaaS or IaaS more (capex vs. open)? Prediction Topic 3 - Politics Will Trump pick a fight with Jeff Bezos? 
 Will regulation impact things like autonomous driverless vehicles?
 Will there be any efforts to encourage work outside the major tech areas? Show Feedback? Email: show at thecloudcast dot net Twitter: @thecloudcastnet YouTube:

In this episode, we discuss Dropbox building their own cloud and moving away from AWS, Marc Benioff's commitment to making sure the Salesforce Tower includes mindful spaces, using encrypted fields in Salesforce, the recently announced Salesforce Field Service Lightning, and Oracle's financial results.The Epic Story of Dropbox’s Exodus From the Amazon Cloud EmpireSalesforce takes on ServiceMax, Microsoft and Oracle with new field service productMicrosoft Corporation Takes on Salesforce with Dynamics CRM 2016 UpdateSalesforce.com storage fail causes lengthy outageSalesforce-Microsoft love grows with SalesforceIQ-Outlook integrationSalesforce Launches New Platform For Financial AdvisorsOracle claims both Salesforce.com and Workday are behindDump Oracle and get a free license for Microsoft SQL ServerHere's the email Larry Ellison just sent to employees about a big change at OracleKeep All Your Customer Data with BigObjects (Pilot)