April 11, 2025 • 29 mins
The public sector is a critical aspect of society—we’re here to ensure they have a seamless entrance into digital transformation with safer, smoother, efficient systems.
Shelby Skrhak speaks with Tony Celeste, executive director and general manager, Ingram Micro Public Sector, about:
- Understanding the public sector
- Cisco’s role in public sector technology
- How technology has changed in the last 5 years
To join the discussion, follow us on Twitter @IngramMicroUSA #B2BTechTalk
Listen to this episode and more like it by subscribing to B2B Tech Talk on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Spreaker.
Shelby Skrhak speaks with Tony Celeste, executive director and general manager, Ingram Micro Public Sector, about:
- Understanding the public sector
- Cisco’s role in public sector technology
- How technology has changed in the last 5 years
To join the discussion, follow us on Twitter @IngramMicroUSA #B2BTechTalk
Listen to this episode and more like it by subscribing to B2B Tech Talk on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Spreaker.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro,
a place to learn about how to grow your business
and stay ahead of technological advances before they've become mainstream.
This episode is sponsored by Ingram Micro's Expantage, the Next
Level way to transform your business's potential and reshape how
customers see you through advanced transactional data.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Welcome to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
I'm your host Shelby Skirhawk, and our guest today is
Tony Celeste, executive director and general manager for Ingram Micro
Public Sector. Tony, welcome, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thank you, Shelby. It's great to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you. Well. Today we are talking about the public
sector with Cisco and Ingram Micro. But first let's go
ahead and define some things specifically, what does the public
sector entail?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, Well, the public sector refers tonment funded and operational
entities responsible for serving the public good right, so citizen services.
For Cisco and Ingram Micro. This specifically includes the federal
government that's the civilian AGC's Department of Defense, the US
(01:17):
Intelligence community, State, local and municipal governments right, state and
local state agencies, local municipalities, public safety departments, education both
K through twelve and higher education, so you're universities and
community colleges. And then public health care hospitals, clinics, systems
(01:39):
funded and managed by government agencies. So that's how we
focus it in these organizations generally focus on citizen services,
critical infrastructure, emergency response, and then national security and defense.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah. Okay, that's a broad range then, and it's an
important range too, Yeah for sure. Well, so kind of
starting at the beginning then, So for a partner that
hasn't done much with the public sector, let's first understand
what's important to understand about how the public sector works
with vendors and partners and companies like Ingram, micro like,
(02:18):
you know, it's the opportunity is huge there. So what
should they know about working with the public sector. How
do you get started? What are some of the rules there?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, I think one thing that's nice about the public
sector is first and foremost are common needs. You know,
they all have a desire for security, they all have
a need to scale, and they are mission driven in
terms of the technology solutions that they're looking for. I
(02:51):
think the real challenge is how is public sector really
different from commercial and what are the impacts to the
selling motion. And so when you look at these things,
it uses taxpayer funded budgets and associated with that or
strict spending and acquisition rules and regulations, it requires an
(03:16):
understanding of the mandatory requirements for competition also the unique
requirements from a regulatory and a technology compliance perspective. So
think of it this way. On the federal government, you
have something called the Federal Acquisition Regulations, and then you
(03:36):
have state and local laws that you have to conform with.
And then from a technology perspective, you can have things
like Trade Agreement Act compliance or security certifications like FedRAMP,
or supply chain requirements like the Cybersecurity Model Certification CMMC.
(03:56):
And then lastly, there's this requirement for transparency and auditability
and that makes sometimes organizations nervous. Yes, well I could
go on with some other things, but why don't I
stop there?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, okay, so that need for transparency, what specifically does
that mean?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, you have to assume that information potentially is going
to be made public. When they go out and they
are asking for requirements, they are looking for competition in
the marketplace. So government comes back and wants to review
the business that you've done with them. You have to
(04:38):
be prepared to be transparent about that and that business
and how you're conducting yourselves in the marketplace is auditable.
One of the other areas is important to mention is
you know the size and the complexity of the missions
inside government. These are large scale, high stakes challenge is
(05:00):
that they're trying to address. And the more demanding technical
requirements in the public sector tend to be around security, reliability, resilience,
and the owner's life cycle that technology has to be
managed over.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So when let's talk a little bit about how to
work with the public sector with the government, and let's
go ahead and bring in kind of a real world
scenario here. Say that you are a public sector, a
municipal government maybe well maybe more of a state government
(05:39):
that does rely on federal funds. As we know with
the Department of Government Governmental Efficiency. You know, there's been
a lot of change, there's been some volatility. So when
there are cuts that are being discussed kind of on
a daily basis, how does that affect technolology spending for
(06:02):
those people in the public sector, and then how does
a partner deal with that?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, so those are all really good points. But before
we get into addressing some of the immediate let's talk
a little bit about how Cisco and Ingram micro can help.
So first and then in bridging the gap on just
the normal course of doing business in the US public sectors.
(06:30):
So we act as a bridge through enablement training, helping
them navigate those procurement complexities of rules and regulations. We
try to offer tailored solutions that address mission requirements and
are partner ready, and then we provide scale financing and
(06:51):
tailored support. So there's probably a handful of areas that
you could break that down. So that goes into things
like partner enablement and acceleration of those deals, shrinking the
sales cycle when competition is needed, and then specifically taking
a look at Cisco's programs, they integrate seamlessly into Ingram
(07:15):
and we support them robustly through our new Exvantage platform,
so that provides assistance. Then the contract vehicles and procurement readiness.
Those are critical how they're going to acquire the technology,
and we have access to those contract vehicles. Either we
hold them directly and facilitate those transactions for our partner network,
(07:39):
or our partners hold them directly and we facilitate those
that way, and then financing life cycle support as well
as cybersecurity compliance. And then most importantly is that quote
unquote mission focus being able to link our partners, like
Cisco's technological innovation to driving mission outcomes, whether it's student success,
(08:04):
citizen safety, or national security. Those are going to be
critical now to your question at hand, right the impacts
of government efficiency initiatives, budget cuts, what's happening with dose overall?
This is a bit of a crazy time. It's highly disruptive.
(08:25):
Government spending though has been on the rise for some time,
but IT investment has remained really relatively flat therely keeping
up with inflation. So the missed opportunity is here is
it could actually drive greater efficiency and ROI through improve
citizen services, better national security of first responder support, healthier
(08:50):
communities and veteran care, and enhanced education. The real issue
is is you know what everybody's experiencing right now with
this disruption and the irony is cost cutting goals are
more achievable with greater strategic IT investments. Yeah, so it's
(09:11):
really been an interesting dynamic and this has put everybody
a bit back on their heels.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Right, right, and that seems like certainly a theme overall
in the industry. You know, digital transformation was the topic,
you know, a few years ago. And where in the
private sector they're they're at that point. Where would you say,
then the public sector is because you're right, there is
a lot of inefficiency and we know there's a lot
(09:40):
of manual analog processes. So where's the public sector compared
to the private sector in terms of you know, what
we think of as digital transformation?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, well they're behind how much? Yeah, So if you
think about it today, seventy to eighty percent of the
IT budgets are tied to maintaining outdated systems, so they
go to maintenance and support, they go to sustainment of existence.
That leads a very small percentage of the discretionary budgets
(10:13):
that exist in the public sector sphere to go towards
driving real either new systems or new services or new implementations.
So the results as you might imagine aging air traffic
control system which we've all heard about, deeper based processes. Still,
the example of retirement records in file cabinets and taking
(10:37):
months to work a retirement package for a retiring federal employee.
So these are just a handful of examples there, but
it has to be viewed as a fault force multiplier
to reduce waste, improve outcomes, increase public trust. That's where Ingram,
(11:01):
Micro Public Sector and Cisco come into play because we
help our partners deliver solutions that are mission ready, align
with the funding compliance frameworks, and provide tangible modernization outcomes
that afford the customer truly a transformative digital solution, right right.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You mentioned the filing cabinets in our kind of pulling
the curtain back in our pre call. You know, when
we first met and chatted, you said something about Iron Mountain.
What does that tell us?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Okay, So in Boyer, Pa, there's a facility. It's maintained
inside an old lime mine, and in it is nothing
but paper records.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So literally aligne mine.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
An old long line and it is now it's been
outfitted to preserve paper records and it is filled with
lined with filing cabinets of records, paper records, and then
those are manually processed for government workers for their retirement packages. Wow,
(12:21):
and it takes six months to do it. So imagine
if you could digitize all that information operate it either
in the cloud or in a private data center, and
process that in days were hours versus months or half
(12:41):
a year.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, that's kind of mind boggling to think that one
that there are still paper systems, but two that they
are such literally varied filing processes that there is such
inefficiency there. But that being able to update that takes technology,
and that technology takes updating. And I guess coming full
(13:05):
circle to what we're talking about today with Cisco, So
can you kind of give us maybe it's just a
specific example, but can you give some one on one
on how Cisco fuels the public sector? I mean in
terms of cloud and like, yeah, I guess if you
want to use you know, ditchizing paper or something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, I do. But one of the things that were
speaking to that example that kind of speaks to what
we're seeing in the marketplace today. There's been policy and
regulatory requirements in the government, and the government eats big
and maybe less understood by the citizens that they serve.
(13:45):
And so the shifting priorities with the new administration, tariffs,
DOGE reforms, you know, this budget uncertainty, continuing resolutions and
coming in trying to place these big, bold bats to
drive this transformation. It's really going to require a lot
(14:06):
of collaboration and partnership to navigate the storm in the
short term. And I think it's important to send this
message to partners before we talk about the Cisco enablement,
that the concerns they're having are valid in their widespread
but the demand isn't going away. It's just being reshaped.
(14:29):
Agencies still need secure infrastructure, they need modernized systems. They
have to transform what they're doing to improve education, healthcare,
public safety, and national security. And many are planning now
strategically for the future when the funding is unlocked, and
(14:51):
so Cisco and Ingram Micro we're preparing to help our
partners navigate that with government buying insights and demand signals,
helping them navigate contracts and funding prepackaged scalable solutions, flexible proturement,
life cycle services. And we're shifting from this short term
(15:15):
transaction mindset to long term positioning. And then so I
want to, you know, after saying that, kind of give
you the chance to go back to your question you
were asking of me, Well, how does Cisco fuel the
public sector and what role does Cisco play well the
(15:37):
first thing I would say is broad and deep technological innovation.
And when you think about the different technologies that Cisco
innovates around, it's AI, right and observability of information. It's
networking and communications both wired and wired, bliss, its collaboration,
(16:03):
its edge to core computing and integrated and security. So
those things play in all of the areas we're going
to talk about, which are government digital transformation of citizen services,
infrastructure modernization, the public safety and emergency response, cybersecurity from
(16:26):
zero trust, this cyber security framework fed RAMP you name it,
state ramp, and then national security tactical ledge, healthcare you know,
secure hybrid workplaces protecting patient data, and then education hybrid learning,
connected campuses. So all of those areas are areas that
(16:49):
Cisco is enabling our partners to deliver on the mission
of the public sector.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
And all of those pieces that you mentioned about AI
and the cloud and networking and wired and wireless, those
are all specific Cisco solutions. You know, as you were
mentioning those, I can think back to the episodes that
we've had about these specific Cisco solutions and understanding those.
(17:18):
I hate to jump around, but I want to go
back to what you said about prepackaged solutions. That so
understanding what the literal Cisco options are. If we were
to just kind of generalize it and say, yeah, all
of those areas that you just mentioned, Cisco has technology
(17:38):
solutions for knowing the breadth of the products. I guess
I don't want to call it products, you know, the
breadth of Cisco when you say working on mission focused
outcomes and prepackaged solutions and basically getting ready for when
(18:01):
you know, I don't know, things settled down. You know,
I guess can you come back to that and speak
to that, because I think that's something that the partner, uh,
they are probably anticipating that for their public sector customer,
you know, the administrator, the CTO, so to speak for
(18:22):
a one piece of the government. They might have to
say to you know, say okay, let's go for it,
let's go ahead and start. But the partner is thinking, oh, well,
you know, they're not ready, so so I'm not going
to do anything. How is that, I guess the wrong thinking.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We need to look at it as how the dynamics
have changed. So it was five years ago little now
that when we went into the pandemic and everybody working
from their offices were pushed out to working from the home,
and this chain how not only how people were working
(19:03):
with one another, but how their data and information flowed
throughout their organizations. Well, now fast forward, we're now going
back to working from offices and there are mandates for
government to come back to those offices and work well.
(19:24):
The infrastructure inside those offices has languished. It's five plus
years old, so you're likely looking at the need to
refresh the wireless environment and the connectivity within those buildings,
the wired infrastructure, the data flows are going to flow differently.
(19:46):
If you're looking at now, there's been a big push
to doing a lot in the cloud, but with new
technologies coming and emerging like AI and the increased cyber
threat now brings back the desire and the interest in
more of a hybrid environment where data centers and computing
(20:08):
resources closer to the users who are now back to
office may make more sense from an efficiency standpoint. So
all of these things will drive increased demand to increase
innovation and represent opportunities in the future for both Cisco,
(20:31):
Ingram Micro and our partners.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
For the skeptic listening, how much has the technology changed
in five years.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Well, it's changed dramatically. Just look at what AI and
large language models are doing to computing, storage and driving
the need for more processing power, more capabilities. They're also
driving the need and generating war data and war information,
(21:02):
which now you need more ways of storing it, greater resiliency,
protecting it, archiving it. All of these things continue to
perpetuate itself, and so when you look at technologies being
optimized to enhance and take advantage of that now to
(21:24):
double edged short our adversaries and those bad actors out
there that want to do people horre and realize dependency
on information technology continues to grow, and therefore cyber security
and security is top of mind and one of the
(21:44):
big continued investment areas across federal, state and local and healthcare.
I mean, how do you protect that information?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So back to the initial premise five years where a
lot of the I mean literally think of an office,
that office that was buzzing every day, that was five
years ago, thinking okay, we need to move everything to
the cloud. You literally put a pause on that. Everybody
leaves that office vacates. That's that technology sits the remote
(22:18):
capabilities that of course you know had to ramp up
very quickly. But for the stuff that was in office, Yeah,
and that's why I asked, you know, for the cynic
that uh that is saying, you know, it really hasn't.
I mean, you know, this technology that I had, you know,
it was just updated you know, before the COVID, before
the pandemic. We don't need a whole new technology stack
(22:42):
just because it's been sitting for five years. So so yeah,
you're right that it has changed dramatically.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You just look at just client yeah right, and it's
in what client device is now with AI capabilities and
new technology sitting inside those client devices enable from a
personal assistant capability of what you're able to do with it.
(23:09):
And so now take that at scale when you're looking
at the enterprise and you bring people in and you're
trying to ingest data and move data around throughout your
organization and do it securely. So technology as a whole
changes very rapidly, and so within five years that technology
(23:33):
would have been completely refreshed, maybe twice. So yeah, there's
going to be a lot of opportunity as we see
these new priorities shifts.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So for the partner that is hearing this you know,
they see that opportunity. How do you do I don't
mean to make it a specific sales pitch, but how
does a partner talk to you know, this person in
the public sector that has some decision making capability. How
(24:04):
do you convince them that there is action to take
and that things can get started now instead of waiting
till you know, so to speak, everything calms down.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, the conversation has to You have to always be
empathetic to change and change being disruptive. But first and foremost,
if you bring it back to the agency and the
agency specific mission, it's going to resonate. It has to
(24:42):
because that's what they're ultimately there to do. And so
for the partner, I would say, first and foremost, do
your homework. Don't go in to talk to a customer
completely blind and say, oh, tell me what your challenges are,
tell me about your pain point. It's go in knowing
(25:03):
what that agency is trying to accomplish. Go in and
be able to ask pointed questions about their mission. How
are they doing this, how is this progressing for them?
What have they seen, what results? Where have there been
bottlenecks or where have they and talk about those types
(25:25):
of things with them to open the conversation because it's
all about mission enablement and their ability to link the
technical innovation that they have in terms of features, function
capabilities to benefits of driving those mission outcomes or of
(25:49):
enabling that agency's mission, whatever it is. And if you
do that, they're going to listen. They're going to care.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
That makes a lot of sense. Is there anything else, Tony,
because I mean you're a wealth of knowledge, so you know,
is there anything that I missed that maybe you know
for a listener, what should if they take anything away
from this episode? What should it be?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
The trends we're going to see after we get through
this very disruptive pace is rising pressure to innovate. They're
going to want to see real innovation and transformation, so
digital transformation to improve the services and security. They're going
(26:31):
to be looking to AI, more automation, secure cloud adoption
as operational imperatives, and that cloud adoption can both be
public and private. It'll be a hybrid environment. Some critical
points mean the public sector in general government must significantly
(26:54):
increase their IT investment. The return the ROI on it's
clear it'll drive better outcomes, it'll drive greater efficiency, it'll
reduce waste and fraud, which are all key priorities across
the board. So if we can navigate the disruption, the
budget of uncertainty, the administrative shifts, the procurement delays, Hey,
(27:19):
all that stuff is temporary, the long term gains will
be well worth the effort. And what I would share
is that Ingram Micro public Sector and Cisco are committed
to not only helping the agencies with this change, but
with our partners so that they can scale confidently and
(27:41):
delivering how comes that matter. So I probably would just
end like the future from where I sit is bright,
and you know, bold demands for investment, strong partnership and
a long term lens is what's needed right now. And
(28:01):
our listeners can find out more by logging on our website,
going to our exdvantage platform and visiting the public Sector
Industry Solutions page. They'll find our sales playbooks, our solutions guides,
market intelligence, contract and funding information that's out there, and
(28:23):
they'll have direct access to Ingram Micro Public Sector smeethe
and specialists and to our smeeeze on the Cisco solutions
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Excellent, Tony, I really appreciate all the time and insight today.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Hey, Shelby, thank you so much for your questions. I
very much enjoyed our discussion.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah well, thank you listeners also for tuning in and
hopefully subscribing to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
Don't forget. You can find all these episodes on the
ingram Micro advantage platform. Until next time, I'm Shelby Skirhawk.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
You've been listening to B to B tech Talk by
Ingram Micro. This episode was sponsored by Ingram Micro Exvantage.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
B to B tech Talk is a.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Joint production between Sweetfish Media and Ingram Micro. To listen
to this episode and many others, visit ingrammicro dot com.
You're listening to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro,
a place to learn about how to grow your business
and stay ahead of technological advances before they've become mainstream.
This episode is sponsored by Ingram Micro's Expantage, the Next
Level way to transform your business's potential and reshape how
customers see you through advanced transactional data.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Welcome to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
I'm your host Shelby Skirhawk, and our guest today is
Tony Celeste, executive director and general manager for Ingram Micro
Public Sector. Tony, welcome, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thank you, Shelby. It's great to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you. Well. Today we are talking about the public
sector with Cisco and Ingram Micro. But first let's go
ahead and define some things specifically, what does the public
sector entail?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, Well, the public sector refers tonment funded and operational
entities responsible for serving the public good right, so citizen services.
For Cisco and Ingram Micro. This specifically includes the federal
government that's the civilian AGC's Department of Defense, the US
(01:17):
Intelligence community, State, local and municipal governments right, state and
local state agencies, local municipalities, public safety departments, education both
K through twelve and higher education, so you're universities and
community colleges. And then public health care hospitals, clinics, systems
(01:39):
funded and managed by government agencies. So that's how we
focus it in these organizations generally focus on citizen services,
critical infrastructure, emergency response, and then national security and defense.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah. Okay, that's a broad range then, and it's an
important range too, Yeah for sure. Well, so kind of
starting at the beginning then, So for a partner that
hasn't done much with the public sector, let's first understand
what's important to understand about how the public sector works
with vendors and partners and companies like Ingram, micro like,
(02:18):
you know, it's the opportunity is huge there. So what
should they know about working with the public sector. How
do you get started? What are some of the rules there?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, I think one thing that's nice about the public
sector is first and foremost are common needs. You know,
they all have a desire for security, they all have
a need to scale, and they are mission driven in
terms of the technology solutions that they're looking for. I
(02:51):
think the real challenge is how is public sector really
different from commercial and what are the impacts to the
selling motion. And so when you look at these things,
it uses taxpayer funded budgets and associated with that or
strict spending and acquisition rules and regulations, it requires an
(03:16):
understanding of the mandatory requirements for competition also the unique
requirements from a regulatory and a technology compliance perspective. So
think of it this way. On the federal government, you
have something called the Federal Acquisition Regulations, and then you
(03:36):
have state and local laws that you have to conform with.
And then from a technology perspective, you can have things
like Trade Agreement Act compliance or security certifications like FedRAMP,
or supply chain requirements like the Cybersecurity Model Certification CMMC.
(03:56):
And then lastly, there's this requirement for transparency and auditability
and that makes sometimes organizations nervous. Yes, well I could
go on with some other things, but why don't I
stop there?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, okay, so that need for transparency, what specifically does
that mean?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, you have to assume that information potentially is going
to be made public. When they go out and they
are asking for requirements, they are looking for competition in
the marketplace. So government comes back and wants to review
the business that you've done with them. You have to
(04:38):
be prepared to be transparent about that and that business
and how you're conducting yourselves in the marketplace is auditable.
One of the other areas is important to mention is
you know the size and the complexity of the missions
inside government. These are large scale, high stakes challenge is
(05:00):
that they're trying to address. And the more demanding technical
requirements in the public sector tend to be around security, reliability, resilience,
and the owner's life cycle that technology has to be
managed over.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So when let's talk a little bit about how to
work with the public sector with the government, and let's
go ahead and bring in kind of a real world
scenario here. Say that you are a public sector, a
municipal government maybe well maybe more of a state government
(05:39):
that does rely on federal funds. As we know with
the Department of Government Governmental Efficiency. You know, there's been
a lot of change, there's been some volatility. So when
there are cuts that are being discussed kind of on
a daily basis, how does that affect technolology spending for
(06:02):
those people in the public sector, and then how does
a partner deal with that?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, so those are all really good points. But before
we get into addressing some of the immediate let's talk
a little bit about how Cisco and Ingram micro can help.
So first and then in bridging the gap on just
the normal course of doing business in the US public sectors.
(06:30):
So we act as a bridge through enablement training, helping
them navigate those procurement complexities of rules and regulations. We
try to offer tailored solutions that address mission requirements and
are partner ready, and then we provide scale financing and
(06:51):
tailored support. So there's probably a handful of areas that
you could break that down. So that goes into things
like partner enablement and acceleration of those deals, shrinking the
sales cycle when competition is needed, and then specifically taking
a look at Cisco's programs, they integrate seamlessly into Ingram
(07:15):
and we support them robustly through our new Exvantage platform,
so that provides assistance. Then the contract vehicles and procurement readiness.
Those are critical how they're going to acquire the technology,
and we have access to those contract vehicles. Either we
hold them directly and facilitate those transactions for our partner network,
(07:39):
or our partners hold them directly and we facilitate those
that way, and then financing life cycle support as well
as cybersecurity compliance. And then most importantly is that quote
unquote mission focus being able to link our partners, like
Cisco's technological innovation to driving mission outcomes, whether it's student success,
(08:04):
citizen safety, or national security. Those are going to be
critical now to your question at hand, right the impacts
of government efficiency initiatives, budget cuts, what's happening with dose overall?
This is a bit of a crazy time. It's highly disruptive.
(08:25):
Government spending though has been on the rise for some time,
but IT investment has remained really relatively flat therely keeping
up with inflation. So the missed opportunity is here is
it could actually drive greater efficiency and ROI through improve
citizen services, better national security of first responder support, healthier
(08:50):
communities and veteran care, and enhanced education. The real issue
is is you know what everybody's experiencing right now with
this disruption and the irony is cost cutting goals are
more achievable with greater strategic IT investments. Yeah, so it's
(09:11):
really been an interesting dynamic and this has put everybody
a bit back on their heels.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Right, right, and that seems like certainly a theme overall
in the industry. You know, digital transformation was the topic,
you know, a few years ago. And where in the
private sector they're they're at that point. Where would you say,
then the public sector is because you're right, there is
a lot of inefficiency and we know there's a lot
(09:40):
of manual analog processes. So where's the public sector compared
to the private sector in terms of you know, what
we think of as digital transformation?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, well they're behind how much? Yeah, So if you
think about it today, seventy to eighty percent of the
IT budgets are tied to maintaining outdated systems, so they
go to maintenance and support, they go to sustainment of existence.
That leads a very small percentage of the discretionary budgets
(10:13):
that exist in the public sector sphere to go towards
driving real either new systems or new services or new implementations.
So the results as you might imagine aging air traffic
control system which we've all heard about, deeper based processes. Still,
the example of retirement records in file cabinets and taking
(10:37):
months to work a retirement package for a retiring federal employee.
So these are just a handful of examples there, but
it has to be viewed as a fault force multiplier
to reduce waste, improve outcomes, increase public trust. That's where Ingram,
(11:01):
Micro Public Sector and Cisco come into play because we
help our partners deliver solutions that are mission ready, align
with the funding compliance frameworks, and provide tangible modernization outcomes
that afford the customer truly a transformative digital solution, right right.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You mentioned the filing cabinets in our kind of pulling
the curtain back in our pre call. You know, when
we first met and chatted, you said something about Iron Mountain.
What does that tell us?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Okay, So in Boyer, Pa, there's a facility. It's maintained
inside an old lime mine, and in it is nothing
but paper records.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So literally aligne mine.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
An old long line and it is now it's been
outfitted to preserve paper records and it is filled with
lined with filing cabinets of records, paper records, and then
those are manually processed for government workers for their retirement packages. Wow,
(12:21):
and it takes six months to do it. So imagine
if you could digitize all that information operate it either
in the cloud or in a private data center, and
process that in days were hours versus months or half
(12:41):
a year.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, that's kind of mind boggling to think that one
that there are still paper systems, but two that they
are such literally varied filing processes that there is such
inefficiency there. But that being able to update that takes technology,
and that technology takes updating. And I guess coming full
(13:05):
circle to what we're talking about today with Cisco, So
can you kind of give us maybe it's just a
specific example, but can you give some one on one
on how Cisco fuels the public sector? I mean in
terms of cloud and like, yeah, I guess if you
want to use you know, ditchizing paper or something like that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, I do. But one of the things that were
speaking to that example that kind of speaks to what
we're seeing in the marketplace today. There's been policy and
regulatory requirements in the government, and the government eats big
and maybe less understood by the citizens that they serve.
(13:45):
And so the shifting priorities with the new administration, tariffs,
DOGE reforms, you know, this budget uncertainty, continuing resolutions and
coming in trying to place these big, bold bats to
drive this transformation. It's really going to require a lot
(14:06):
of collaboration and partnership to navigate the storm in the
short term. And I think it's important to send this
message to partners before we talk about the Cisco enablement,
that the concerns they're having are valid in their widespread
but the demand isn't going away. It's just being reshaped.
(14:29):
Agencies still need secure infrastructure, they need modernized systems. They
have to transform what they're doing to improve education, healthcare,
public safety, and national security. And many are planning now
strategically for the future when the funding is unlocked, and
(14:51):
so Cisco and Ingram Micro we're preparing to help our
partners navigate that with government buying insights and demand signals,
helping them navigate contracts and funding prepackaged scalable solutions, flexible proturement,
life cycle services. And we're shifting from this short term
(15:15):
transaction mindset to long term positioning. And then so I
want to, you know, after saying that, kind of give
you the chance to go back to your question you
were asking of me, Well, how does Cisco fuel the
public sector and what role does Cisco play well the
(15:37):
first thing I would say is broad and deep technological innovation.
And when you think about the different technologies that Cisco
innovates around, it's AI, right and observability of information. It's
networking and communications both wired and wired, bliss, its collaboration,
(16:03):
its edge to core computing and integrated and security. So
those things play in all of the areas we're going
to talk about, which are government digital transformation of citizen services,
infrastructure modernization, the public safety and emergency response, cybersecurity from
(16:26):
zero trust, this cyber security framework fed RAMP you name it,
state ramp, and then national security tactical ledge, healthcare you know,
secure hybrid workplaces protecting patient data, and then education hybrid learning,
connected campuses. So all of those areas are areas that
(16:49):
Cisco is enabling our partners to deliver on the mission
of the public sector.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
And all of those pieces that you mentioned about AI
and the cloud and networking and wired and wireless, those
are all specific Cisco solutions. You know, as you were
mentioning those, I can think back to the episodes that
we've had about these specific Cisco solutions and understanding those.
(17:18):
I hate to jump around, but I want to go
back to what you said about prepackaged solutions. That so
understanding what the literal Cisco options are. If we were
to just kind of generalize it and say, yeah, all
of those areas that you just mentioned, Cisco has technology
(17:38):
solutions for knowing the breadth of the products. I guess
I don't want to call it products, you know, the
breadth of Cisco when you say working on mission focused
outcomes and prepackaged solutions and basically getting ready for when
(18:01):
you know, I don't know, things settled down. You know,
I guess can you come back to that and speak
to that, because I think that's something that the partner, uh,
they are probably anticipating that for their public sector customer,
you know, the administrator, the CTO, so to speak for
(18:22):
a one piece of the government. They might have to
say to you know, say okay, let's go for it,
let's go ahead and start. But the partner is thinking, oh, well,
you know, they're not ready, so so I'm not going
to do anything. How is that, I guess the wrong thinking.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We need to look at it as how the dynamics
have changed. So it was five years ago little now
that when we went into the pandemic and everybody working
from their offices were pushed out to working from the home,
and this chain how not only how people were working
(19:03):
with one another, but how their data and information flowed
throughout their organizations. Well, now fast forward, we're now going
back to working from offices and there are mandates for
government to come back to those offices and work well.
(19:24):
The infrastructure inside those offices has languished. It's five plus
years old, so you're likely looking at the need to
refresh the wireless environment and the connectivity within those buildings,
the wired infrastructure, the data flows are going to flow differently.
(19:46):
If you're looking at now, there's been a big push
to doing a lot in the cloud, but with new
technologies coming and emerging like AI and the increased cyber
threat now brings back the desire and the interest in
more of a hybrid environment where data centers and computing
(20:08):
resources closer to the users who are now back to
office may make more sense from an efficiency standpoint. So
all of these things will drive increased demand to increase
innovation and represent opportunities in the future for both Cisco,
(20:31):
Ingram Micro and our partners.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
For the skeptic listening, how much has the technology changed
in five years.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Well, it's changed dramatically. Just look at what AI and
large language models are doing to computing, storage and driving
the need for more processing power, more capabilities. They're also
driving the need and generating war data and war information,
(21:02):
which now you need more ways of storing it, greater resiliency,
protecting it, archiving it. All of these things continue to
perpetuate itself, and so when you look at technologies being
optimized to enhance and take advantage of that now to
(21:24):
double edged short our adversaries and those bad actors out
there that want to do people horre and realize dependency
on information technology continues to grow, and therefore cyber security
and security is top of mind and one of the
(21:44):
big continued investment areas across federal, state and local and healthcare.
I mean, how do you protect that information?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So back to the initial premise five years where a
lot of the I mean literally think of an office,
that office that was buzzing every day, that was five
years ago, thinking okay, we need to move everything to
the cloud. You literally put a pause on that. Everybody
leaves that office vacates. That's that technology sits the remote
(22:18):
capabilities that of course you know had to ramp up
very quickly. But for the stuff that was in office, Yeah,
and that's why I asked, you know, for the cynic
that uh that is saying, you know, it really hasn't.
I mean, you know, this technology that I had, you know,
it was just updated you know, before the COVID, before
the pandemic. We don't need a whole new technology stack
(22:42):
just because it's been sitting for five years. So so yeah,
you're right that it has changed dramatically.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You just look at just client yeah right, and it's
in what client device is now with AI capabilities and
new technology sitting inside those client devices enable from a
personal assistant capability of what you're able to do with it.
(23:09):
And so now take that at scale when you're looking
at the enterprise and you bring people in and you're
trying to ingest data and move data around throughout your
organization and do it securely. So technology as a whole
changes very rapidly, and so within five years that technology
(23:33):
would have been completely refreshed, maybe twice. So yeah, there's
going to be a lot of opportunity as we see
these new priorities shifts.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So for the partner that is hearing this you know,
they see that opportunity. How do you do I don't
mean to make it a specific sales pitch, but how
does a partner talk to you know, this person in
the public sector that has some decision making capability. How
(24:04):
do you convince them that there is action to take
and that things can get started now instead of waiting
till you know, so to speak, everything calms down.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, the conversation has to You have to always be
empathetic to change and change being disruptive. But first and foremost,
if you bring it back to the agency and the
agency specific mission, it's going to resonate. It has to
(24:42):
because that's what they're ultimately there to do. And so
for the partner, I would say, first and foremost, do
your homework. Don't go in to talk to a customer
completely blind and say, oh, tell me what your challenges are,
tell me about your pain point. It's go in knowing
(25:03):
what that agency is trying to accomplish. Go in and
be able to ask pointed questions about their mission. How
are they doing this, how is this progressing for them?
What have they seen, what results? Where have there been
bottlenecks or where have they and talk about those types
(25:25):
of things with them to open the conversation because it's
all about mission enablement and their ability to link the
technical innovation that they have in terms of features, function
capabilities to benefits of driving those mission outcomes or of
(25:49):
enabling that agency's mission, whatever it is. And if you
do that, they're going to listen. They're going to care.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
That makes a lot of sense. Is there anything else, Tony,
because I mean you're a wealth of knowledge, so you know,
is there anything that I missed that maybe you know
for a listener, what should if they take anything away
from this episode? What should it be?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
The trends we're going to see after we get through
this very disruptive pace is rising pressure to innovate. They're
going to want to see real innovation and transformation, so
digital transformation to improve the services and security. They're going
(26:31):
to be looking to AI, more automation, secure cloud adoption
as operational imperatives, and that cloud adoption can both be
public and private. It'll be a hybrid environment. Some critical
points mean the public sector in general government must significantly
(26:54):
increase their IT investment. The return the ROI on it's
clear it'll drive better outcomes, it'll drive greater efficiency, it'll
reduce waste and fraud, which are all key priorities across
the board. So if we can navigate the disruption, the
budget of uncertainty, the administrative shifts, the procurement delays, Hey,
(27:19):
all that stuff is temporary, the long term gains will
be well worth the effort. And what I would share
is that Ingram Micro public Sector and Cisco are committed
to not only helping the agencies with this change, but
with our partners so that they can scale confidently and
(27:41):
delivering how comes that matter. So I probably would just
end like the future from where I sit is bright,
and you know, bold demands for investment, strong partnership and
a long term lens is what's needed right now. And
(28:01):
our listeners can find out more by logging on our website,
going to our exdvantage platform and visiting the public Sector
Industry Solutions page. They'll find our sales playbooks, our solutions guides,
market intelligence, contract and funding information that's out there, and
(28:23):
they'll have direct access to Ingram Micro Public Sector smeethe
and specialists and to our smeeeze on the Cisco solutions
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Excellent, Tony, I really appreciate all the time and insight today.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Hey, Shelby, thank you so much for your questions. I
very much enjoyed our discussion.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah well, thank you listeners also for tuning in and
hopefully subscribing to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro.
Don't forget. You can find all these episodes on the
ingram Micro advantage platform. Until next time, I'm Shelby Skirhawk.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
You've been listening to B to B tech Talk by
Ingram Micro. This episode was sponsored by Ingram Micro Exvantage.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
B to B tech Talk is a.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Joint production between Sweetfish Media and Ingram Micro. To listen
to this episode and many others, visit ingrammicro dot com.
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