Unlocking the Power of Learning and Ethical Partnerships in IT
In this episode of IAMCP Profiles in Partnership, hosts Anthony Carrano and Rudy Rodriguez sit down with Javier Lozano, the visionary founder of Nanfor, to explore how his company is transforming the IT training landscape. Javier shares his passion for continuous learning and its critical role in business growth, as well as, emphasizing the value of ethical partnerships and long-term relationships in today’s fast-evolving tech world.
Throughout this episode, Anthony, Rudy, and Javier discuss the following:
- Revolutionizing IT Training with Learning as a Service: Javier explains how Nanfor's innovative Learning as a Service model has empowered organizations by providing cutting-edge training solutions. This approach is reshaping how companies view training costs, shifting from CapEx to OpEx, and maximizing ROI while fostering a culture of perpetual learning.
- The Value of Ethical Partnerships: Javier highlights the importance of creating win-win relationships that benefit both partners. He shares how Nanfor has built long-lasting, ethical partnerships that contribute to mutual success, underlining the significance of commitment and trust in the IT ecosystem.
- Driving Business Growth Through Customer Satisfaction: At the heart of Nanfor’s success is a deep commitment to understanding and meeting customer needs. Javier discusses how his company works with partners to ensure customers receive the best possible service, leading to stronger relationships and business growth for all parties involved.
- The Power of Community and Networking: As a passionate member of the IAMCP community, Javier underscores the importance of collaboration among Microsoft partners. He talks about the value of shared experiences and the role of community-driven opportunities in helping businesses succeed in the competitive IT space.
- Fostering Long-Term Relationships in IT: Javier believes that the most profitable partnerships are those built over time. He emphasizes that trust, loyalty, and commitment are essential for sustaining meaningful, long-term business relationships, and he offers advice on how to cultivate these values.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of IT training, ethical business partnerships, and the importance of continuous learning in the tech industry. Javier’s insights will inspire you to rethink how you approach partnerships, customer relationships, and business growth.
Listener Links / Resources
Guest:
Javier Lozano: LinkedIn Profile
Nanfor Iberica: Website
Show Hosts:
Anthony Carrano LinkedIn, Managing Partner at Dunamis Marketing
Rudy Rodriguez LinkedIn, Managing Partner at Dunamis Marketing
Profiles in Partnership, brought to you by Dunamis Marketing
International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners: IAMCP Website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anthony Carrano (00:05):
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership,
the podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners and IAMCP
members boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co-host,Anthony Carrano. And in each
episode, I'll be talking to someof the most innovative and
successful partners in theMicrosoft ecosystem. The
International Association ofMicrosoft Channel Partners,
(00:28):
otherwise known as IAMCP, is acommunity of Microsoft partners
who help each other grow andthrive. Members can find and
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Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. We'll hear
(00:48):
their stories, learn from theirexperiences, and discover the
best practices and strategiesthey use to increase customer
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an established one, you'll findvaluable insights and
inspiration in this podcast. Wehope you enjoy this podcast and
find it useful and inspiring. Ifyou do, please subscribe, rate,
and review us on your favoritepodcast platform.
(01:10):
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media and connect with us
on our website,www.profilesinpartnership.com,
where you can find moreinformation, resources, and
opportunities to partner forsuccess. Thank you for
listening. And now let's getstarted with today's episode.
But before we dive into ourinterview, let me ask you a
couple of questions. As aMicrosoft partner and member of
(01:33):
the IAMCP, how are you investingin the continuous learning and
development of your employeesand customers as a way to grow
your business?
And how do you build and deliverthe right solution to help you
achieve that? These are some ofthe questions we'll explore in
this podcast with the help ofour guest, a P2P EMEA winner for
the Adviser Awards and an ISVawards nominee. He'll share
(01:57):
stories, challenges, andsuccesses, and give you
practical tips and advice on howto build for success. Are you
ready to join us on thisjourney? Then stay tuned because
we have a great show for youtoday.
Our guest is Javier Lozano, theCEO at Nanfor Iberica, an
award-winning ICT consultancyand advisory firm implementing
(02:18):
educational platforms tofacilitate learning as a
service. Let's hear what he hasto say. Welcome, Javier, to the
podcast today. Thank you forjoining us.
Javier Lozano (02:29):
Thank you very much for having me here. I am
very happy to to be part of youractivity today.
Anthony Carrano (02:36):
Yeah. We're looking forward to a great,
great interview with you. Let'sstart off. Tell us a little bit
about yourself and your role inthe company.
Javier Lozano (02:45):
Okay. Well, I'm Javier Lozano. I'm from Madrid,
Spain, but I have always, veryinternational and IT minded. So
I started to study business andI was, specializing all the
time. And when I have seen allall this stuff of technology, I
said I have to go to thecomputer, to the computing
(03:07):
science.
So I started to study computing.And then I started my own
company that I am actually theowner. It's just Nanfor. It's a
company that I founded abouttwenty five years ago. And, we
are very happy to work in IT,with all these changing changes
(03:28):
that make us be young all thetime with all these time
changing activities.
Anthony Carrano (03:35):
Nice. Nice. And how long, have you been part of
IAMCP?
Javier Lozano (03:40):
So I noticed IAMCP of the American meetings
in the the first year that wasopen. So I think it's from maybe
sixteen years or fifteen years,something like that. I don't
know how it's this time from theSpanish chapter that was founded
one year afterwards, theAmerican one. So I've been
(04:02):
always very close to partners. Ithink that one of the, you go to
the make out doctor, they saypartnering and socializing is a
very good thing for health.
So in my case, I used to dothat, and I like very much to
share my knowledge and to learnfrom others. This is why I
thought that was a great idea tostart this association. This is
(04:27):
why I was working actually inwith the IAMCP. I am engaged in
different activities. I am amember of the P2P Partner
worldwide.
Then I am member of the ENCPEMEA. I am the member as well
for the organization. And then Iam as well a member of the
Spanish chapter of the of theboard, a member of the board.
(04:50):
And we are organizing a veryimportant meeting, international
meeting with EMEA this year in,Spain. All the the the chapters
are coming in the month ofOctober.
So if you guys know, so someonewho is going to to this is
attending to this broadcast,they are very much welcome to to
(05:11):
attend. We are going to be in avery nice place, and it's going
to be what we call in Europe,Illuminate, which is the the
meeting of all the of all thepartners from Europe.
Anthony Carrano (05:22):
Nice. Fantastic. Definitely we'll be
on the lookout for that, forsure. And really appreciate your
service to the IAMCP community,so thank you. In addition to
being the, you know, the mostrecent EMEA winner for the
Adviser Awards and the nomineeon the ice for the ISV awards,
you know, last year.
You've also your company haswon, like, over 20 awards from
(05:45):
Microsoft, you know, over theyears. So very involved, very
aligned. Congratulations there.Let's talk though a little bit
about, your company's areas ofspecialization. Can you tell us
a little bit about that?
Javier Lozano (05:58):
Yes, of course. Historically, we have been
members from the area oflearning. Actually we are
training solution partner. Wecover the six designation areas
regarding training, and we arealways working in this area.
Afterwards we have been workingin the area of designation for
(06:20):
Microsoft and AI.
And, we are, actually the twoISV. We have a solution, that
is, in the marketplace, one yearago and it's regarding, licenses
of what we call learning as aservice. So these are our main,
three main activities.
Anthony Carrano (06:42):
Excellent. Excellent. And I know as a very,
you know, partner drivencompany, you guys, you know, you
have, like, 18 partners, youknow, across from Spain, Mexico,
and Portugal. But I also haveheard that you guys are breaking
into the US. So share with us alittle bit about how, Nanfor is
accessing, and entering the USmarket.
Javier Lozano (07:02):
By the way, we have started the activity with
in the US market thanks to theIAMCP.
Anthony Carrano (07:08):
There we go.
Javier Lozano (07:11):
So we started at the beginning and I was in the
same activity because we have,organized from Spain a meeting
in Costa Rica and some partnersfrom in Texas. They wanted to
check which kind of activitiesthat we have. And then, we have
been in contact with anotherpartners from Microsoft that
(07:34):
they are authorized labproviders. So these two
partners, CelesteTek and XtremeLabs, are the ones that were
interested in working with us.They have seen our solutions.
They have seen that there is aspace in the marketing in The
Americas. And, we have startedwith working with with them. And
(07:57):
for some we do learning as aservice solutions, especially
they are working actually withall our family of Copilot
solutions from the end useradapted to different roles to
the, as to the to the technicalcontent because our learning as
a service solution has thesoftware, but we include content
(08:21):
and all the the materials thatmake the company able to work
with this, this software and thecontent that is inside. Okay?
Anthony Carrano (08:30):
Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, I'm not sure if you're
aware, but we're actually, beingin Texas ourselves, we know
Victor and Jose at CelesteTekvery well. They're great guys
great guys to work with.
Javier Lozano (08:42):
Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Victor and Jose, very
nice. Yes.
These are, one of our partnersthat they work with with us in
in this activity. And thanks tothe IAMCP, we we have been in
contact with them.
Anthony Carrano (08:54):
Excellent. Excellent. Well, I know on that
note, we're really, interestedin learning more about the about
the story. Rudy?
Rudy Rodriguez (09:03):
Yeah. Well, Javier, I'm really interested in
the story, having been alearning partner myself at one
time and and graduated from thatindustry because it's ever
changing, isn't it? And so oneof the things that that really
got me interested was how youbuilt, you know, came up with
the ideas, learning as aservice. And then some of the
partners that you worked withsays, I was especially
(09:24):
interested in the story that youtold about working with Redcom
Cybernetico and then the numberof people that you trained. Was
the goal to certify those peopleor just just to give them basic
knowledge? Can you tell us alittle bit about how your
service works?
Javier Lozano (09:42):
Yeah. For why we have, developed this solution?
Because, we are focused onsolutions with impact. That
means that organizations, somepeople need to to have impact in
what they are doing. Classical,learning solutions, with, like a
(10:03):
course that is organized fromMonday to to Friday are very
good, but they have a start dateand an end date.
And, maybe in the companies whenthey have they want to to apply
this knowledge, they haveproblems or issues. So, one of
the things that we want is tooffer a continuing solution,
technical solution that helpspeople, technical people, and
(10:27):
final users because we havelearning as a service with third
contents, which are for high endor technical guys, or we have
learning as a service workforcethat are mainly offered to the
to the end users. They need tobe always in this ever changing,
as you know very well, Rudy,about learning is actually the
(10:50):
speed of change is increasingall the time. No. It's not it's
not a problem.
When we were in the moments ofthe SQL, when we started with
the the versions, it's cominganother version we have to
change. But now it's allmoments. Yesterday, I was with,
with more than 200 peopletalking about AI solutions. They
(11:12):
were, all of them, IT peoplefrom a professional college in
in Spain. And I was doing a ademo, and suddenly, I saw a new
thing.
Oh, this has come fromyesterday. It was not, it was
not, but today also arrived.People need updating constantly.
People need service. Companiesare changing all the time, and
(11:32):
they face an very ferociouscompetition, and they have to
face a change and technology asa must to survive.
So people need to have this kindof of services. What is learning
as a service? Learning as aservice is a license that you
buy for one year. You have allthe knowledge, the service, the
(11:52):
support, and the technologies offrom Microsoft, from Linux,
from, from Gill, and from, isChrome methodologies that you
can get in the year. So if youare a very good student and you
want to study a lot and and andachieve, being architect in five
(12:15):
months, you have just to paywhat the license.
The company buys a group oflicenses, and these people, they
they get what they need. Wechange the concept of knowledge,
from CapEx to OPEX. So thatmeans that it's a fixed a fixed
investment. They don't have tobe worried or because they have
a new project. Say, oh my oh mygod.
(12:36):
Now I have to invest inknowledge. I have to invest in
training. I have to find a goodtrainer where I'm going to have
that. This is overcome. We don'thave to we have, for example,
Avanade Avanade is a customer ofthis program. Toyota in Mexico,
in some banks as well. Not only,partners. Okay? Because they
need that. They need that. No?
(12:56):
This is the the point. They haveto have, as well, support and
service. We have a group ofpeople in different countries
that if they want, they cancontact us, they'll learn as a
service with this kind ofservice. So what they have is,
to avoid, the problem of the newprojects and as well the problem
(13:17):
in terms of partner of Microsoftpartnership, the situation that
Microsoft, as you know very wellabout designations and
continuously certifications,they they can get this training.
Other result that we have fromsome of them from Redcom is that
they have decreased their theirrotation of their people, of
(13:39):
their staff because they thestaff knows that when they go
they go they join this company,they're going to have the
training for grant warranty.They don't have to ask. They
don't have to see yesterday, bythe way, one guy say, no. In my
company, I want to get training,but I'm not the one that is
selected, and I am not satisfiedfor that. So in this kind of
(14:00):
learning as a service program isa guarantee the the knowledge
and has this, these advantages.
And this is why we started withthat, and we think that
companies need some of them theyneed as well, the technology.
They don't have their own LMS.They don't have this software
(14:21):
that needs to be supported andthey don't have as well the
contents that we are developingalways for including the
solution.
Rudy Rodriguez (14:30):
Since you mentioned that they don't always
have the the platform to dothis. So, like an LMS. So does
your system include an LMS whereyou can give companies reports
on who's taken the training andhow well they've done or any any
metrics along those lines?
Javier Lozano (14:46):
Yes. Of course. Thank you for bringing me this
question. It is very important,for companies. This is another
advantage.
They have on demand reports.They can, automatize the
information. But we have, wethink that online and and
delivery of knowledge is notonly of online with technology,
(15:10):
but with person. So we alwayshave meetings, online meetings
with the support managers. Wehave each company has their own,
their own agent, their ownsupport and professional that
gives all the information.
They have, reports of four. Andthis is very interesting because
(15:30):
since they, it increasedproductivity because, company
pays for the licenses, but thenot only the company knows how
it is are going the theknowledge of the of the
students, but as well, thehonest student is meeting with
their managers in thisinformation. So the motivation
(15:54):
is much highly to, learn morewith less.
Rudy Rodriguez (15:58):
I'm glad you elaborated on that because you
talked about the impact oftraining. And so that's really
great that they have theirsupport managers and stuff
because that's always veryimportant in measuring the
impact of training. As youmentioned earlier, you know,
when it was all instructor led,there was a beginning and an
end. And as I used to talk aboutit, people remember 30% of what
(16:19):
they learned in that week. Andthen, you know, how do you keep
people informed and keep itgoing?
And it's very important becausethen as a service, they can
revisit some of those thingsthat they weren't clear on and
get answers to their questions.So that's very, very important.
So I really like the part oflearning as a service and how
(16:40):
how you're expanding that.
Javier Lozano (16:42):
Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (16:42):
Can you tell us a little bit about, you know,
like some of these things, someof the projects that you've
worked on, I saw one where, youwere training hundreds or
thousands of people, to becomebetter and and more productive
in their jobs. Can you tell us alittle bit about about some of
those successes that you've had?
Javier Lozano (17:01):
For example, one of the projects that, have, we
have achieved more than 1,000about 2,000 people, more than
2,000 people, was organized withMicrosoft and with, IAMCP as a
group that we started to totrain in, in different areas. We
have certification areas, but wehave as well customized
(17:25):
training. In terms of ofbusiness, we are more, usually
our partners or our end usersare, many of them are SMBs.
Okay? They are not, some of themI have talked about big
companies, but maybe sometimesthese companies have their own
(17:48):
their own platforms or they havesome they are only call us for a
very specialized consultancy orvery specialized solution.
But the main problem is for themedium to small companies. Most
of the partners of the IAMCP,companies that maybe they don't
have 3,000, 4,000 employees,maybe they have 40 or maybe as
(18:09):
our friends, they have 10 or 15.How they can achieve how they
can get this this training. Withus, since it's absolutely
flexible, they are for sure,have the the knowledge. For
instance, someone leaves thecompany, the license can go to
another person.
So, for that, we have given thisoffering to the the whole. And
(18:35):
in Spain and Portugal, we tookmore than than 250 partners, and
at the end, the the number ofpeople that we achieved of
learning were about more than2,000. This is, with a big
quantity. But I would like tomention too, how we can impact
(18:56):
is, the companies as a whole.Now because this is a very huge
project with many people andmany companies, but we are
focused how the knowledge canimpact the business.
How we can impact the businessbecause this is very important,
and we have to go with to theCEO. We have to work with the
owners of the company, with theboard. And this is our main goal
(19:18):
right now. Our main goal is wewant you to speed your business,
which are your specialties. Forexample, in terms of partnering
with Microsoft, you want to be apartner of which kind of
specialties, data and AI.
So which is the level ofknowledge of your staff? What
needs your staff to achieve toget the designation or
(19:41):
specialization, which are thesteps that you have to get, and
we provide you, consultancy fromthe beginning. Because
sometimes, you find out thatsome companies, they have some
some professionals that theydon't know anything about data
and AI. So now I want to startabout that and and other people
that they already know aboutthat. Then they don't know that
they have to do that.
(20:02):
So we have to to fix all theseneeds, and then the company has
their own needs of business. Soyou have to to create a group of
interest from all thestakeholders to achieve the
impact in the organization andprofitability. Otherwise, some
of the decisions of theknowledge management in the
(20:22):
companies are not, are notinvolved in getting this this
profitability and this, and thisimpact.
Rudy Rodriguez (20:33):
No. It's it's very important to do that
assessment upfront, and that's alot of companies skip that, and
then they don't realize the thereal value of the investment
that they have to make intraining their employees. So
you've mentioned workforcedevelopment, and I noticed that
you've also gotten some grantsfrom from the government to help
train people. So workforcedevelopment is really important.
(20:56):
Can you tell us a little bitabout how you went about that
process?
Javier Lozano (21:00):
Yeah. We have, working with, with activities
because as well, apart frombeing from the IAMCP, we belong
to another European associationthat it's focused on changing
and training people to achievebetter employments and achieve
(21:23):
better activities. So what we dois to find companies that need
talent and then people that theyhave to be, that they want to go
to the market. And then what wefind are, European Union funds
from different differentactivities. And once we organize
(21:44):
all this activity, we work withthis area of of workforce, and
we give them, this solution aswell, learning as a service
solution.
That the idea is to keep the thecontact with the student, with
the learner all the time, notleaving them in a starting and
(22:05):
end course. Okay? So our idea ismaintaining relationship with
them always and trying toprovide the best for for their
not only for the company, but aswell for the student.
Rudy Rodriguez (22:20):
Do you work with any learning institutions,
colleges and universities toprovide your services through
those organizations?
Javier Lozano (22:28):
Well, actually we work with learning some
institutions that are in privateuniversities, but actually the
new project that we are dealingwith are with professional
associations of companies. Imean, so we work as well with
(22:49):
different groups of, ofverticals. We are working with
verticals too. For example,engineering. We have actually,
some business cases aboutengineering.
They have engineering that theywant innovation, and they have
in their staff maybe 10% ofpeople that they are IT people,
not only engineers. They havemaybe and what they buy for our
(23:13):
mass is their learning as aservice. They have their LMS,
which is we give them the LMS,and we train them. And because
what we want is companies havesuccess. So we are seeing, for
example, in the verticals ofengineering that companies that
have 200, 300 people, they don'thave any IT people inside.
So they are always depending onone company that is going to
(23:35):
tell you something to do, andthen they do a project and this
project stops. And then anotheris the same thing of the
training that I was telling you.No. One project or training
starts and finish. I said, butwhat what the hell? And then why
you have that?
I have this program. I havethis. So for us, it's very
important. This continuouslydriving knowledge and and
(23:55):
acquisition of knowledge thatpermits companies to be
independent in in the verticalsor in touristic as well, and we
are in the verticals oflearning, of training.
We offer this kind of technologyto the learning area. Okay? So
this is these are apart from thethe IT companies, these are our
(24:16):
verticals.
Rudy Rodriguez (24:17):
That's great to hear because, that ties in with
something that I got taught along time ago, by one of my
advisors in college who when Igraduated, he pulled me aside.
He goes, "I really respect whatyou've done for us, and I want
you to remember one thing.Learning is a lifelong process.
(24:38):
Never stop." So that's very,very important.
Javier Lozano (24:41):
And, of course, this is something that some
people forget. So you say, "Howlong how many hours did you
apply last year of having newknowledge?" Say, "Oh, I've been
maybe I have taken a training often hours or twenty hours." So
say, "How the hell? You have tobe learning all the time, all
the weeks, all the days. Youhave to pay one hour, two hours
(25:02):
of learning." This is veryimportant to be in the to be
able to give them good serviceto the society.
Rudy Rodriguez (25:09):
Absolutely. Anthony, you got some more
questions?
Anthony Carrano (25:13):
Oh, no. I'm on the note of learning. I'm just
listening in and enjoying allthis. Always good advice. Well,
talk about, what are some thingsthat you found as you're
engaging with these companiesthat are, you know, embracing
this learning as a service.
What are some things that you'reseeing in terms of some of their
(25:36):
success rates?
Javier Lozano (25:38):
Okay. They have increased. For example, right
now, we are having a lot ofsuccess with our all our AI
Copilot solutions because, rightat first, the last week we have
for one of the companies thatthey say, I don't know how they
have missed their app. I don'tknow how they do that. But they
(25:58):
say that in tech, for example,the development department has
achieved improvements of 80% ofproductivity because of the
learning that they have takenfrom GitHub Copilot and project
development and implementation.
For me, the figures that arerespectable maybe is 22% to 30%.
(26:21):
In terms for example, for ofoffering new services to the
customers because they havedeveloped, they know how to
develop their the new Copilotsfor service, for servicing this,
their customers. Another is thethe rate of success of projects.
In terms of IT, as you know,there are some companies that
(26:43):
they have a lot of people, butthey don't have time to train
because they ask if the theasset to the company say, you
have to do this project, but Idon't have the training. What
could I do?
I don't have time. You have tolearn in from the scratch or
with experience it. And the theproject sometimes is a failure
because of that. So once wehave, the the the rate of, of
(27:06):
success in projects hasincreased in for for example,
Redcom, which is a company thatwe have I have put in. They
achieved 27% of improvements.They have they didn't have
situations with the people thatthey were engaged in the
learning as a service program.
Why? It's very easy. We have, wehave, a special, very clear case
(27:31):
with a field service project.They had to, one company has
bought Dynamics three six fivefield service, and the the IT
company have to offer servicesfor that. But they didn't know
about that.
So in the past, with a project,similar project, they have to
contract a training. They didn'thave time to organize that. They
(27:53):
have to push the project in themoment. With the learning as a
service, the guys were studyinganother thing, but they changed
and they started to work withthat. In one week, they they
knew a little bit of what theywere talking.
In one month, they were able toperform service and to,
administer and develop servicesto this company. So it's a very
(28:16):
flexible way. This is anotheradvantage that we see with this
program. Breadthcom, forinstance, they have the problem
of of achieving. They theystarted to to to to spend on on
their on their staff, trainingthem and certifying them.
Suddenly, when they certified,some of them, they quit the
(28:37):
company because they were hiredby others because they have a
very high level ofcertification. Now with the
learning as a service, most ofthem, they stay because they
they have a longer term ofengagement with the company
because they say, I want to behere at least one or two years
to receive and to get myarchitect certifications, and
(29:02):
being these projects. And, andthey don't have the the problem
of, so, of changing people andcertifying I have to invest and
losing the certification.
Anthony Carrano (29:12):
Mhmm. Mhmm. I know you had mentioned that you
tend to work with the owners,CEOs, and boards. What have you
found to be kind of different insome of the the cultures, like
the organizational culture ofthose companies that embrace
learning as a service versusthose that do not?
Javier Lozano (29:32):
The change, but we see that people that they
don't embrace such kind ofservices.
Anthony Carrano (29:38):
Yeah, what's different in terms of the
organizational culture? There'sas you're working with these
different-
Javier Lozano (29:44):
Yeah, this is a 20th century, 20th century
culture to 21st century culture.So I want to have money in the
pocket. I have to I want to havemoney in the pocket very short
term and then the moneydisappear because they don't
invest anything in. And the mainchanges are short term companies
(30:08):
that they say, I need something,let's pay for that or people
that they know, companies thatthey know they have to invest to
improve. In, for example, thiscompany that we are working in
the engineering area, they areincreasing their business 50%
yearly because they areinvesting off very heavily in
technology, but they areinvesting in a proper way.
It's not a kind of because someof the business, when you, for
(30:31):
example, Anthony has asked me,the twentieth century business
owners or CEOs, what they sayis, oh, I have seen another
company that they have thistechnology. I have to buy it.
They go to the to the provider.Give me this technology very
fast. But they they didn't havea strategical plan.
They didn't have an IT and aninnovation plan that is embedded
(30:52):
in their business. They areworking just step by step or
without any long term business.So this is these are the
differences, not a strategicalapproach, to technology in embed
in their business to the other,approach of the technology that
is doing by impulse becausesomeone has that or I need this
(31:15):
CRM or I am going to put thisERP, and then I have the problem
that why I do that and people,they get disappointed because,
this is not value for us. No? OrI have this technology, and I
have this investment, and Ididn't have any ROI because of
that.
Anthony Carrano (31:31):
Now I know I've mentioned you guys are a
partner, you know, drivencompany. What tends to be your
criteria for selecting apartner?
Javier Lozano (31:40):
So our criteria, first is to learn that they
understand our business, thatthey really feel we're not
asking or looking for a very bigcompany. We prefer more,
partners that they reallyappreciate, what we do and they
believe that these solutions forimpact solutions for companies.
(32:03):
And the second, of course, istheir commitment. What are
they're going to do? What dothey feel to do that?
Not just to have our name of ourlogo, to put our logo. I am
doing this service because it'svery modern, but commitment. We
are always looking forcommitment and, of course,
experience in the market. Weneed to have we have different
(32:25):
partners. We have sometimespartners from learning partners.
We have in Mexico, for example,Executrain, which is a very, a
very good partner of withlearning as a service and
they're doing a great job withthat. They are more focused in
this in this part, but then wehave IT people that what they do
is to get our solutions to getimpact in the organizations. At
the end, what we need iscommitment.
Anthony Carrano (32:48):
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. And now as
you've gone through some ofthese engagements, do you guys
usually have any challenges, youknow, with your partners? And if
so, what tends to be kind of themost common challenge, and and
how do you work together toovercome it?
Javier Lozano (33:03):
So the main challenges that we have with our
partners, are alwayscommunication, be aligned in the
business and understand theneeds of the, of the our common
customers. The most importantthing is how we can understand
the needs of our customers togive them the best to achieve
their satisfaction and toachieve new contracts. So how do
(33:27):
we do? We have to do it with, ofcourse, with, learning as a
service programs that they are,all of our partners, they have
their own licenses. And we doalways with with the webinars,
with, potential, meetings, withpersonal meetings, in person
meetings, online meetings, andof course, sharing new business
(33:51):
cases.
We work a lot in in this area,putting together a specialist of
its company to talking abouttheir experiences.
Rudy Rodriguez (34:00):
Yeah. I've got a follow-up question. So, you
know, based on on all yourpartnering experience, you know,
I've heard you mentioned that,that engaging with your company
helps increase customersatisfaction. Are you also
tracking if it helps growrevenue for for your clients as
well?
Javier Lozano (34:18):
This of course, this is one of the of the main
issues that we need that weneed. This is why I have been
talking before about, customersatisfaction and understanding
the the customer. If we don'tknow the customer, we are not
going to be able to offer himsomething that is going to be
valuable for him. And he's notgoing to be as well, profitable,
(34:40):
and we are not going to haveROI. If we go just to sell this
technical solution, I am sellingyou a CRM.
This is not going to work. Weneed to to to learn. This is why
we love partnering because thepartner knows much better than
the customer. If I go to the USand I'm trying to to learn about
(35:00):
the customer that, CelesteTekhas or Xtreme Lab has, it's
going to be, for me, it's muchmuch easier to achieve, the
experience of this of thepartner and to increase our
business and their own business,with these business agreements
and knowing the customer andgiving them what they really
need. And for us, businessgrowth is fundamental, of
(35:23):
course, and and the businessgrowth not only for the the the
the customer, but of course forfor us, for the dealings that we
do with them.
Rudy Rodriguez (35:32):
Well, I love your passion, and you led right
into the next question I wasgonna ask, which was, you know,
it's the closing question tothis interview, Javier, is what
advice would you give companieslike yours in regard to
partnering? Because partnering,you know, the one thing that
you've stressed is how importantpartnering is. So what advice
would you give companies likeyours about partnering?
Javier Lozano (35:55):
So the first advice is to be ethical. The
second advice is quid pro quo,which is win to win. I was
thinking, what is going to winmy partner? I am thinking in my
partner, what how he can win? Ifhe wins, I win.
Not the idea of 21st centurypartnering. I win and then
(36:17):
everybody, no. No. We are welove the long term partnership.
We'll have partners many years,and we are very happy to see
them because they earn moneywith us.
We earn money with them. We arehappy because we see that the
customers are happy. This is theethicality is very important.
It's, of course, long termrelationship and commitment and,
(36:42):
of course, efforts. No?
We have to work with theprograms and follow the business
and being professionals thatthis is something very
important, of course. No.Because sometimes maybe you find
someone that wants to dosomething, but maybe it's not
the right company or the rightgroup of people. But for us,
(37:02):
long term and how the thepartner is going to win. If some
partner wants to have partners,what they have to know to think
is how they are going to achievebusiness, not only squeeze them.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:13):
Gotcha. No. I love that passion. I love that
passion.
Javier Lozano (37:18):
Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:19):
It goes a long way. It goes a long, long way.
Javier Lozano (37:21):
Long term relationships are the most
profitable ones.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:25):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Anthony Carrano (37:27):
That's a great word.
Javier Lozano (37:30):
Yeah, I think that is the only way because if
you trust and you get it and asyou know very well to get trust
from others is a long termthing. This is why, you can have
good solutions and thecompanies, the end user or the
(37:50):
company, the final customer, seeus as a team is and and
appreciate this kind of panel.This is why I love very much the
activity of the IAMCP. I thinkthis is very important. I think
we need to to work more ingiving, this kind of of,
business cases, opportunities.
(38:12):
For us is sometimes issurprising. The very high value
that the IAMCP is giving to allthe community and how the
partners sometimes they don'tvalue that. It's because, and
for us, it's incredible how yougive a lot of business and how
you give opportunities. Andmaybe because it's easy. I don't
know why. But they don't valuethis this partnership.
(38:34):
I know that because I am inother in other associations. And
I know how they work. And I knowthe difficultIES, the very- here
is much much easier because wehave the most of most of the
technologies are similar. Weknow the same.
But sometimes, you know, theyhave this jealousy situations.
These are this partner is goingto give me it's going to take
(38:55):
me. But if you study the therelationship, I think maybe 90%
of all the partners have manypoints in common to develop
their own businesses.
Anthony Carrano (39:05):
Well, that's a great word, Javier. And really
we really appreciate you beingon. This was a fantastic
interview. A lot of wonderful,wonderful insights. So thank
you.
Javier Lozano (39:16):
Thank you very much.
Anthony Carrano (39:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. As we wrap up, what
are some ways how can listenersfind out more information about
you and Nanfor and all the workthat y'all are doing?
Javier Lozano (39:26):
So they can find in our web, we have contact
there. They can find me inLinkedIn. I am g a v l o z,
Jablov, Javier Lozano. And theycan call me too. I am in
LinkedIn.
And of course, we have a groupof we have our our own Copilot
that can give advice to abouthow to partner with us in our
(39:49):
web. They they can find our ownCopilot service to agent that
they can give you information.But I will be very glad to be in
contact with, any partner thatcan want to know about our
business and how we can engageand have a relationship with
them.
Anthony Carrano (40:06):
Excellent. Excellent. I'll include be sure
to include all those links inour show notes. Well, this does
it for today. Once again, thankyou, Javier.
This was fantastic. You have agreat day.
Javier Lozano (40:16):
Thank you very much to you all. Thank you. Same
to you. Have a very nice day.
Rudy Rodriguez (40:21):
Take care.
Anthony Carrano (40:25):
Wow. That was a great episode. I really
appreciate, Javier's, you know,excitement and his passion, for
learning. I mean, it wasinfectious.
Rudy Rodriguez (40:35):
Yes. It was. There was a lot of passion in
Javier's voice. Once he gotwarmed up, he he really got
going. I really enjoyed that.
Anthony Carrano (40:44):
He did. He did. And I also just, you know,
having, and he sounds like he'sreally not only appreciative,
but also just a real contributorto the IAMCP community. So it
was great getting his, you know,perspective, you know, on all
that. I mean, I reallyappreciated at the end his
advice to partners.
I mean, I just thought it wasso, you know, just succinct and
(41:06):
powerful. First and foremost,you know, just the importance on
being ethical. Right? And allthat that implies. And, you
know, coupled with that islooking to, you know, always
create win win, you know, forobviously, for yourself, your
own company, but also for yourpartner.
And this combination that of,you know, being ethical and
always looking to create, youknow, win win situations leads
(41:29):
to the third point about havingthe perspective that good long
term relationships areprofitable ones. But how you
gotta be ethical, and you'vegotta go look to create those
win wins, which helps, you know,really facilitate those good
long term relationships. And soit was great just hearing him
just share some of the storiesas well as some of your own
(41:50):
stories, Rudy, as you guys haveboth, you know, been, you know,
in the ecosystem for a longtime. So it's really just
refreshing to hear.
Rudy Rodriguez (41:57):
No. I really enjoyed it and especially the
the innovative approach thathe's taken to his business,
learning as a service, that'staken a long time to evolve. And
having been in that business atthe early onset in way back even
in the 1990's, it really hasevolved considerably. And the
approach that he takes ofworking through partners,
(42:19):
that's, you know, I reallyappreciate his patience and
passion in teaching partners,the value of learning, because
when you teach partners andcustomers, the value of learning
and how to use the technologymore efficiently, more properly,
they develop more depth and thatbreeds loyalty in your employees
(42:40):
as well, because employeesalways wanna wanna work for
people who are continuouslylearning. As I mentioned in the
interview, learning is alifelong process.
And one way to keep happyemployees is to continuously
train them. So they know theirjobs well, and they know how to
execute, and then they teachtheir customers how to execute.
(43:02):
And we learned that in anotherinterview that we did earlier
today, that learning is, isvaluable. And if you teach your
customers how to use thetechnology properly, then
they'll be law be lifelongcustomers, and those are the
profitable ones. Those arethat's really great to know. And
I appreciate Javier's passion insharing that with us.
Anthony Carrano (43:25):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Just also too, I
really appreciated how you justtalked about just the importance
of understanding the needs ofthe customer and, you know,
coupling that with a commitmentto always give them, you know,
your best. And if, you know,more and more just realize that,
you know, building, delivering,you know, and just ensuring, you
(43:46):
know, amazing customerexperiences is the best form of
marketing and I bet, you know,one of the best ways that, you
know, businesses can reallygrow, you know, their own
business. So I reallyappreciated him sharing that.
Rudy Rodriguez (43:57):
Same here. And, you know, the other thing I
wanna share about this, with ourlisteners, the chapter in Spain
is one of the most engaged IAMCPchapters in the world. Everyone
I've ever met from there is justas passionate as Javier was. So
I really appreciate that. Iwanna thank, all of our
listeners for joining us todayon this episode of IAMCP
(44:19):
Profiles in Partnership poweredby Dunamis Marketing.
We hope you enjoyed this podcastand find it useful and
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to partner for success is tojoin the IAMCP, a community of
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(44:42):
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To learn more, visit the websiteat www.iamcp.org.
Welcome to the IAMCP Profiles and Partnership,
the podcast that showcases howMicrosoft partners and IAMCP
members boost their business bycollaborating with other members
and partners. I'm your co-host,Anthony Carrano. And in each
episode, I'll be talking to someof the most innovative and
successful partners in theMicrosoft ecosystem. The
International Association ofMicrosoft Channel Partners,
(00:28):
otherwise known as IAMCP, is acommunity of Microsoft partners
who help each other grow andthrive. Members can find and
connect with other partnerslocally and globally and access
exclusive resources andopportunities.
Whether you're looking for newcustomers, new markets, or new
solutions, IAMCP can help youachieve your goals. We'll hear
(00:48):
their stories, learn from theirexperiences, and discover the
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(01:10):
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media and connect with us
on our website,www.profilesinpartnership.com,
where you can find moreinformation, resources, and
opportunities to partner forsuccess. Thank you for
listening. And now let's getstarted with today's episode.
But before we dive into ourinterview, let me ask you a
couple of questions. As aMicrosoft partner and member of
(01:33):
the IAMCP, how are you investingin the continuous learning and
development of your employeesand customers as a way to grow
your business?
And how do you build and deliverthe right solution to help you
achieve that? These are some ofthe questions we'll explore in
this podcast with the help ofour guest, a P2P EMEA winner for
the Adviser Awards and an ISVawards nominee. He'll share
(01:57):
stories, challenges, andsuccesses, and give you
practical tips and advice on howto build for success. Are you
ready to join us on thisjourney? Then stay tuned because
we have a great show for youtoday.
Our guest is Javier Lozano, theCEO at Nanfor Iberica, an
award-winning ICT consultancyand advisory firm implementing
(02:18):
educational platforms tofacilitate learning as a
service. Let's hear what he hasto say. Welcome, Javier, to the
podcast today. Thank you forjoining us.
Javier Lozano (02:29):
Thank you very much for having me here. I am
very happy to to be part of youractivity today.
Anthony Carrano (02:36):
Yeah. We're looking forward to a great,
great interview with you. Let'sstart off. Tell us a little bit
about yourself and your role inthe company.
Javier Lozano (02:45):
Okay. Well, I'm Javier Lozano. I'm from Madrid,
Spain, but I have always, veryinternational and IT minded. So
I started to study business andI was, specializing all the
time. And when I have seen allall this stuff of technology, I
said I have to go to thecomputer, to the computing
(03:07):
science.
So I started to study computing.And then I started my own
company that I am actually theowner. It's just Nanfor. It's a
company that I founded abouttwenty five years ago. And, we
are very happy to work in IT,with all these changing changes
(03:28):
that make us be young all thetime with all these time
changing activities.
Anthony Carrano (03:35):
Nice. Nice. And how long, have you been part of
IAMCP?
Javier Lozano (03:40):
So I noticed IAMCP of the American meetings
in the the first year that wasopen. So I think it's from maybe
sixteen years or fifteen years,something like that. I don't
know how it's this time from theSpanish chapter that was founded
one year afterwards, theAmerican one. So I've been
(04:02):
always very close to partners. Ithink that one of the, you go to
the make out doctor, they saypartnering and socializing is a
very good thing for health.
So in my case, I used to dothat, and I like very much to
share my knowledge and to learnfrom others. This is why I
thought that was a great idea tostart this association. This is
(04:27):
why I was working actually inwith the IAMCP. I am engaged in
different activities. I am amember of the P2P Partner
worldwide.
Then I am member of the ENCPEMEA. I am the member as well
for the organization. And then Iam as well a member of the
Spanish chapter of the of theboard, a member of the board.
(04:50):
And we are organizing a veryimportant meeting, international
meeting with EMEA this year in,Spain. All the the the chapters
are coming in the month ofOctober.
So if you guys know, so someonewho is going to to this is
attending to this broadcast,they are very much welcome to to
(05:11):
attend. We are going to be in avery nice place, and it's going
to be what we call in Europe,Illuminate, which is the the
meeting of all the of all thepartners from Europe.
Anthony Carrano (05:22):
Nice. Fantastic. Definitely we'll be
on the lookout for that, forsure. And really appreciate your
service to the IAMCP community,so thank you. In addition to
being the, you know, the mostrecent EMEA winner for the
Adviser Awards and the nomineeon the ice for the ISV awards,
you know, last year.
You've also your company haswon, like, over 20 awards from
(05:45):
Microsoft, you know, over theyears. So very involved, very
aligned. Congratulations there.Let's talk though a little bit
about, your company's areas ofspecialization. Can you tell us
a little bit about that?
Javier Lozano (05:58):
Yes, of course. Historically, we have been
members from the area oflearning. Actually we are
training solution partner. Wecover the six designation areas
regarding training, and we arealways working in this area.
Afterwards we have been workingin the area of designation for
(06:20):
Microsoft and AI.
And, we are, actually the twoISV. We have a solution, that
is, in the marketplace, one yearago and it's regarding, licenses
of what we call learning as aservice. So these are our main,
three main activities.
Anthony Carrano (06:42):
Excellent. Excellent. And I know as a very,
you know, partner drivencompany, you guys, you know, you
have, like, 18 partners, youknow, across from Spain, Mexico,
and Portugal. But I also haveheard that you guys are breaking
into the US. So share with us alittle bit about how, Nanfor is
accessing, and entering the USmarket.
Javier Lozano (07:02):
By the way, we have started the activity with
in the US market thanks to theIAMCP.
Anthony Carrano (07:08):
There we go.
Javier Lozano (07:11):
So we started at the beginning and I was in the
same activity because we have,organized from Spain a meeting
in Costa Rica and some partnersfrom in Texas. They wanted to
check which kind of activitiesthat we have. And then, we have
been in contact with anotherpartners from Microsoft that
(07:34):
they are authorized labproviders. So these two
partners, CelesteTek and XtremeLabs, are the ones that were
interested in working with us.They have seen our solutions.
They have seen that there is aspace in the marketing in The
Americas. And, we have startedwith working with with them. And
(07:57):
for some we do learning as aservice solutions, especially
they are working actually withall our family of Copilot
solutions from the end useradapted to different roles to
the, as to the to the technicalcontent because our learning as
a service solution has thesoftware, but we include content
(08:21):
and all the the materials thatmake the company able to work
with this, this software and thecontent that is inside. Okay?
Anthony Carrano (08:30):
Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, I'm not sure if you're
aware, but we're actually, beingin Texas ourselves, we know
Victor and Jose at CelesteTekvery well. They're great guys
great guys to work with.
Javier Lozano (08:42):
Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. Victor and Jose, very
nice. Yes.
These are, one of our partnersthat they work with with us in
in this activity. And thanks tothe IAMCP, we we have been in
contact with them.
Anthony Carrano (08:54):
Excellent. Excellent. Well, I know on that
note, we're really, interestedin learning more about the about
the story. Rudy?
Rudy Rodriguez (09:03):
Yeah. Well, Javier, I'm really interested in
the story, having been alearning partner myself at one
time and and graduated from thatindustry because it's ever
changing, isn't it? And so oneof the things that that really
got me interested was how youbuilt, you know, came up with
the ideas, learning as aservice. And then some of the
partners that you worked withsays, I was especially
(09:24):
interested in the story that youtold about working with Redcom
Cybernetico and then the numberof people that you trained. Was
the goal to certify those peopleor just just to give them basic
knowledge? Can you tell us alittle bit about how your
service works?
Javier Lozano (09:42):
Yeah. For why we have, developed this solution?
Because, we are focused onsolutions with impact. That
means that organizations, somepeople need to to have impact in
what they are doing. Classical,learning solutions, with, like a
(10:03):
course that is organized fromMonday to to Friday are very
good, but they have a start dateand an end date.
And, maybe in the companies whenthey have they want to to apply
this knowledge, they haveproblems or issues. So, one of
the things that we want is tooffer a continuing solution,
technical solution that helpspeople, technical people, and
(10:27):
final users because we havelearning as a service with third
contents, which are for high endor technical guys, or we have
learning as a service workforcethat are mainly offered to the
to the end users. They need tobe always in this ever changing,
as you know very well, Rudy,about learning is actually the
(10:50):
speed of change is increasingall the time. No. It's not it's
not a problem.
When we were in the moments ofthe SQL, when we started with
the the versions, it's cominganother version we have to
change. But now it's allmoments. Yesterday, I was with,
with more than 200 peopletalking about AI solutions. They
(11:12):
were, all of them, IT peoplefrom a professional college in
in Spain. And I was doing a ademo, and suddenly, I saw a new
thing.
Oh, this has come fromyesterday. It was not, it was
not, but today also arrived.People need updating constantly.
People need service. Companiesare changing all the time, and
(11:32):
they face an very ferociouscompetition, and they have to
face a change and technology asa must to survive.
So people need to have this kindof of services. What is learning
as a service? Learning as aservice is a license that you
buy for one year. You have allthe knowledge, the service, the
(11:52):
support, and the technologies offrom Microsoft, from Linux,
from, from Gill, and from, isChrome methodologies that you
can get in the year. So if youare a very good student and you
want to study a lot and and andachieve, being architect in five
(12:15):
months, you have just to paywhat the license.
The company buys a group oflicenses, and these people, they
they get what they need. Wechange the concept of knowledge,
from CapEx to OPEX. So thatmeans that it's a fixed a fixed
investment. They don't have tobe worried or because they have
a new project. Say, oh my oh mygod.
(12:36):
Now I have to invest inknowledge. I have to invest in
training. I have to find a goodtrainer where I'm going to have
that. This is overcome. We don'thave to we have, for example,
Avanade Avanade is a customer ofthis program. Toyota in Mexico,
in some banks as well. Not only,partners. Okay? Because they
need that. They need that. No?
(12:56):
This is the the point. They haveto have, as well, support and
service. We have a group ofpeople in different countries
that if they want, they cancontact us, they'll learn as a
service with this kind ofservice. So what they have is,
to avoid, the problem of the newprojects and as well the problem
(13:17):
in terms of partner of Microsoftpartnership, the situation that
Microsoft, as you know very wellabout designations and
continuously certifications,they they can get this training.
Other result that we have fromsome of them from Redcom is that
they have decreased their theirrotation of their people, of
(13:39):
their staff because they thestaff knows that when they go
they go they join this company,they're going to have the
training for grant warranty.They don't have to ask. They
don't have to see yesterday, bythe way, one guy say, no. In my
company, I want to get training,but I'm not the one that is
selected, and I am not satisfiedfor that. So in this kind of
(14:00):
learning as a service program isa guarantee the the knowledge
and has this, these advantages.
And this is why we started withthat, and we think that
companies need some of them theyneed as well, the technology.
They don't have their own LMS.They don't have this software
(14:21):
that needs to be supported andthey don't have as well the
contents that we are developingalways for including the
solution.
Rudy Rodriguez (14:30):
Since you mentioned that they don't always
have the the platform to dothis. So, like an LMS. So does
your system include an LMS whereyou can give companies reports
on who's taken the training andhow well they've done or any any
metrics along those lines?
Javier Lozano (14:46):
Yes. Of course. Thank you for bringing me this
question. It is very important,for companies. This is another
advantage.
They have on demand reports.They can, automatize the
information. But we have, wethink that online and and
delivery of knowledge is notonly of online with technology,
(15:10):
but with person. So we alwayshave meetings, online meetings
with the support managers. Wehave each company has their own,
their own agent, their ownsupport and professional that
gives all the information.
They have, reports of four. Andthis is very interesting because
(15:30):
since they, it increasedproductivity because, company
pays for the licenses, but thenot only the company knows how
it is are going the theknowledge of the of the
students, but as well, thehonest student is meeting with
their managers in thisinformation. So the motivation
(15:54):
is much highly to, learn morewith less.
Rudy Rodriguez (15:58):
I'm glad you elaborated on that because you
talked about the impact oftraining. And so that's really
great that they have theirsupport managers and stuff
because that's always veryimportant in measuring the
impact of training. As youmentioned earlier, you know,
when it was all instructor led,there was a beginning and an
end. And as I used to talk aboutit, people remember 30% of what
(16:19):
they learned in that week. Andthen, you know, how do you keep
people informed and keep itgoing?
And it's very important becausethen as a service, they can
revisit some of those thingsthat they weren't clear on and
get answers to their questions.So that's very, very important.
So I really like the part oflearning as a service and how
(16:40):
how you're expanding that.
Javier Lozano (16:42):
Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (16:42):
Can you tell us a little bit about, you know,
like some of these things, someof the projects that you've
worked on, I saw one where, youwere training hundreds or
thousands of people, to becomebetter and and more productive
in their jobs. Can you tell us alittle bit about about some of
those successes that you've had?
Javier Lozano (17:01):
For example, one of the projects that, have, we
have achieved more than 1,000about 2,000 people, more than
2,000 people, was organized withMicrosoft and with, IAMCP as a
group that we started to totrain in, in different areas. We
have certification areas, but wehave as well customized
(17:25):
training. In terms of ofbusiness, we are more, usually
our partners or our end usersare, many of them are SMBs.
Okay? They are not, some of themI have talked about big
companies, but maybe sometimesthese companies have their own
(17:48):
their own platforms or they havesome they are only call us for a
very specialized consultancy orvery specialized solution.
But the main problem is for themedium to small companies. Most
of the partners of the IAMCP,companies that maybe they don't
have 3,000, 4,000 employees,maybe they have 40 or maybe as
(18:09):
our friends, they have 10 or 15.How they can achieve how they
can get this this training. Withus, since it's absolutely
flexible, they are for sure,have the the knowledge. For
instance, someone leaves thecompany, the license can go to
another person.
So, for that, we have given thisoffering to the the whole. And
(18:35):
in Spain and Portugal, we tookmore than than 250 partners, and
at the end, the the number ofpeople that we achieved of
learning were about more than2,000. This is, with a big
quantity. But I would like tomention too, how we can impact
(18:56):
is, the companies as a whole.Now because this is a very huge
project with many people andmany companies, but we are
focused how the knowledge canimpact the business.
How we can impact the businessbecause this is very important,
and we have to go with to theCEO. We have to work with the
owners of the company, with theboard. And this is our main goal
(19:18):
right now. Our main goal is wewant you to speed your business,
which are your specialties. Forexample, in terms of partnering
with Microsoft, you want to be apartner of which kind of
specialties, data and AI.
So which is the level ofknowledge of your staff? What
needs your staff to achieve toget the designation or
(19:41):
specialization, which are thesteps that you have to get, and
we provide you, consultancy fromthe beginning. Because
sometimes, you find out thatsome companies, they have some
some professionals that theydon't know anything about data
and AI. So now I want to startabout that and and other people
that they already know aboutthat. Then they don't know that
they have to do that.
(20:02):
So we have to to fix all theseneeds, and then the company has
their own needs of business. Soyou have to to create a group of
interest from all thestakeholders to achieve the
impact in the organization andprofitability. Otherwise, some
of the decisions of theknowledge management in the
(20:22):
companies are not, are notinvolved in getting this this
profitability and this, and thisimpact.
Rudy Rodriguez (20:33):
No. It's it's very important to do that
assessment upfront, and that's alot of companies skip that, and
then they don't realize the thereal value of the investment
that they have to make intraining their employees. So
you've mentioned workforcedevelopment, and I noticed that
you've also gotten some grantsfrom from the government to help
train people. So workforcedevelopment is really important.
(20:56):
Can you tell us a little bitabout how you went about that
process?
Javier Lozano (21:00):
Yeah. We have, working with, with activities
because as well, apart frombeing from the IAMCP, we belong
to another European associationthat it's focused on changing
and training people to achievebetter employments and achieve
(21:23):
better activities. So what we dois to find companies that need
talent and then people that theyhave to be, that they want to go
to the market. And then what wefind are, European Union funds
from different differentactivities. And once we organize
(21:44):
all this activity, we work withthis area of of workforce, and
we give them, this solution aswell, learning as a service
solution.
That the idea is to keep the thecontact with the student, with
the learner all the time, notleaving them in a starting and
(22:05):
end course. Okay? So our idea ismaintaining relationship with
them always and trying toprovide the best for for their
not only for the company, but aswell for the student.
Rudy Rodriguez (22:20):
Do you work with any learning institutions,
colleges and universities toprovide your services through
those organizations?
Javier Lozano (22:28):
Well, actually we work with learning some
institutions that are in privateuniversities, but actually the
new project that we are dealingwith are with professional
associations of companies. Imean, so we work as well with
(22:49):
different groups of, ofverticals. We are working with
verticals too. For example,engineering. We have actually,
some business cases aboutengineering.
They have engineering that theywant innovation, and they have
in their staff maybe 10% ofpeople that they are IT people,
not only engineers. They havemaybe and what they buy for our
(23:13):
mass is their learning as aservice. They have their LMS,
which is we give them the LMS,and we train them. And because
what we want is companies havesuccess. So we are seeing, for
example, in the verticals ofengineering that companies that
have 200, 300 people, they don'thave any IT people inside.
So they are always depending onone company that is going to
(23:35):
tell you something to do, andthen they do a project and this
project stops. And then anotheris the same thing of the
training that I was telling you.No. One project or training
starts and finish. I said, butwhat what the hell? And then why
you have that?
I have this program. I havethis. So for us, it's very
important. This continuouslydriving knowledge and and
(23:55):
acquisition of knowledge thatpermits companies to be
independent in in the verticalsor in touristic as well, and we
are in the verticals oflearning, of training.
We offer this kind of technologyto the learning area. Okay? So
this is these are apart from thethe IT companies, these are our
(24:16):
verticals.
Rudy Rodriguez (24:17):
That's great to hear because, that ties in with
something that I got taught along time ago, by one of my
advisors in college who when Igraduated, he pulled me aside.
He goes, "I really respect whatyou've done for us, and I want
you to remember one thing.Learning is a lifelong process.
(24:38):
Never stop." So that's very,very important.
Javier Lozano (24:41):
And, of course, this is something that some
people forget. So you say, "Howlong how many hours did you
apply last year of having newknowledge?" Say, "Oh, I've been
maybe I have taken a training often hours or twenty hours." So
say, "How the hell? You have tobe learning all the time, all
the weeks, all the days. Youhave to pay one hour, two hours
(25:02):
of learning." This is veryimportant to be in the to be
able to give them good serviceto the society.
Rudy Rodriguez (25:09):
Absolutely. Anthony, you got some more
questions?
Anthony Carrano (25:13):
Oh, no. I'm on the note of learning. I'm just
listening in and enjoying allthis. Always good advice. Well,
talk about, what are some thingsthat you found as you're
engaging with these companiesthat are, you know, embracing
this learning as a service.
What are some things that you'reseeing in terms of some of their
(25:36):
success rates?
Javier Lozano (25:38):
Okay. They have increased. For example, right
now, we are having a lot ofsuccess with our all our AI
Copilot solutions because, rightat first, the last week we have
for one of the companies thatthey say, I don't know how they
have missed their app. I don'tknow how they do that. But they
(25:58):
say that in tech, for example,the development department has
achieved improvements of 80% ofproductivity because of the
learning that they have takenfrom GitHub Copilot and project
development and implementation.
For me, the figures that arerespectable maybe is 22% to 30%.
(26:21):
In terms for example, for ofoffering new services to the
customers because they havedeveloped, they know how to
develop their the new Copilotsfor service, for servicing this,
their customers. Another is thethe rate of success of projects.
In terms of IT, as you know,there are some companies that
(26:43):
they have a lot of people, butthey don't have time to train
because they ask if the theasset to the company say, you
have to do this project, but Idon't have the training. What
could I do?
I don't have time. You have tolearn in from the scratch or
with experience it. And the theproject sometimes is a failure
because of that. So once wehave, the the the rate of, of
(27:06):
success in projects hasincreased in for for example,
Redcom, which is a company thatwe have I have put in. They
achieved 27% of improvements.They have they didn't have
situations with the people thatthey were engaged in the
learning as a service program.
Why? It's very easy. We have, wehave, a special, very clear case
(27:31):
with a field service project.They had to, one company has
bought Dynamics three six fivefield service, and the the IT
company have to offer servicesfor that. But they didn't know
about that.
So in the past, with a project,similar project, they have to
contract a training. They didn'thave time to organize that. They
(27:53):
have to push the project in themoment. With the learning as a
service, the guys were studyinganother thing, but they changed
and they started to work withthat. In one week, they they
knew a little bit of what theywere talking.
In one month, they were able toperform service and to,
administer and develop servicesto this company. So it's a very
(28:16):
flexible way. This is anotheradvantage that we see with this
program. Breadthcom, forinstance, they have the problem
of of achieving. They theystarted to to to to spend on on
their on their staff, trainingthem and certifying them.
Suddenly, when they certified,some of them, they quit the
(28:37):
company because they were hiredby others because they have a
very high level ofcertification. Now with the
learning as a service, most ofthem, they stay because they
they have a longer term ofengagement with the company
because they say, I want to behere at least one or two years
to receive and to get myarchitect certifications, and
(29:02):
being these projects. And, andthey don't have the the problem
of, so, of changing people andcertifying I have to invest and
losing the certification.
Anthony Carrano (29:12):
Mhmm. Mhmm. I know you had mentioned that you
tend to work with the owners,CEOs, and boards. What have you
found to be kind of different insome of the the cultures, like
the organizational culture ofthose companies that embrace
learning as a service versusthose that do not?
Javier Lozano (29:32):
The change, but we see that people that they
don't embrace such kind ofservices.
Anthony Carrano (29:38):
Yeah, what's different in terms of the
organizational culture? There'sas you're working with these
different-
Javier Lozano (29:44):
Yeah, this is a 20th century, 20th century
culture to 21st century culture.So I want to have money in the
pocket. I have to I want to havemoney in the pocket very short
term and then the moneydisappear because they don't
invest anything in. And the mainchanges are short term companies
(30:08):
that they say, I need something,let's pay for that or people
that they know, companies thatthey know they have to invest to
improve. In, for example, thiscompany that we are working in
the engineering area, they areincreasing their business 50%
yearly because they areinvesting off very heavily in
technology, but they areinvesting in a proper way.
It's not a kind of because someof the business, when you, for
(30:31):
example, Anthony has asked me,the twentieth century business
owners or CEOs, what they sayis, oh, I have seen another
company that they have thistechnology. I have to buy it.
They go to the to the provider.Give me this technology very
fast. But they they didn't havea strategical plan.
They didn't have an IT and aninnovation plan that is embedded
(30:52):
in their business. They areworking just step by step or
without any long term business.So this is these are the
differences, not a strategicalapproach, to technology in embed
in their business to the other,approach of the technology that
is doing by impulse becausesomeone has that or I need this
(31:15):
CRM or I am going to put thisERP, and then I have the problem
that why I do that and people,they get disappointed because,
this is not value for us. No? OrI have this technology, and I
have this investment, and Ididn't have any ROI because of
that.
Anthony Carrano (31:31):
Now I know I've mentioned you guys are a
partner, you know, drivencompany. What tends to be your
criteria for selecting apartner?
Javier Lozano (31:40):
So our criteria, first is to learn that they
understand our business, thatthey really feel we're not
asking or looking for a very bigcompany. We prefer more,
partners that they reallyappreciate, what we do and they
believe that these solutions forimpact solutions for companies.
(32:03):
And the second, of course, istheir commitment. What are
they're going to do? What dothey feel to do that?
Not just to have our name of ourlogo, to put our logo. I am
doing this service because it'svery modern, but commitment. We
are always looking forcommitment and, of course,
experience in the market. Weneed to have we have different
(32:25):
partners. We have sometimespartners from learning partners.
We have in Mexico, for example,Executrain, which is a very, a
very good partner of withlearning as a service and
they're doing a great job withthat. They are more focused in
this in this part, but then wehave IT people that what they do
is to get our solutions to getimpact in the organizations. At
the end, what we need iscommitment.
Anthony Carrano (32:48):
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. And now as
you've gone through some ofthese engagements, do you guys
usually have any challenges, youknow, with your partners? And if
so, what tends to be kind of themost common challenge, and and
how do you work together toovercome it?
Javier Lozano (33:03):
So the main challenges that we have with our
partners, are alwayscommunication, be aligned in the
business and understand theneeds of the, of the our common
customers. The most importantthing is how we can understand
the needs of our customers togive them the best to achieve
their satisfaction and toachieve new contracts. So how do
(33:27):
we do? We have to do it with, ofcourse, with, learning as a
service programs that they are,all of our partners, they have
their own licenses. And we doalways with with the webinars,
with, potential, meetings, withpersonal meetings, in person
meetings, online meetings, andof course, sharing new business
(33:51):
cases.
We work a lot in in this area,putting together a specialist of
its company to talking abouttheir experiences.
Rudy Rodriguez (34:00):
Yeah. I've got a follow-up question. So, you
know, based on on all yourpartnering experience, you know,
I've heard you mentioned that,that engaging with your company
helps increase customersatisfaction. Are you also
tracking if it helps growrevenue for for your clients as
well?
Javier Lozano (34:18):
This of course, this is one of the of the main
issues that we need that weneed. This is why I have been
talking before about, customersatisfaction and understanding
the the customer. If we don'tknow the customer, we are not
going to be able to offer himsomething that is going to be
valuable for him. And he's notgoing to be as well, profitable,
(34:40):
and we are not going to haveROI. If we go just to sell this
technical solution, I am sellingyou a CRM.
This is not going to work. Weneed to to to learn. This is why
we love partnering because thepartner knows much better than
the customer. If I go to the USand I'm trying to to learn about
(35:00):
the customer that, CelesteTekhas or Xtreme Lab has, it's
going to be, for me, it's muchmuch easier to achieve, the
experience of this of thepartner and to increase our
business and their own business,with these business agreements
and knowing the customer andgiving them what they really
need. And for us, businessgrowth is fundamental, of
(35:23):
course, and and the businessgrowth not only for the the the
the customer, but of course forfor us, for the dealings that we
do with them.
Rudy Rodriguez (35:32):
Well, I love your passion, and you led right
into the next question I wasgonna ask, which was, you know,
it's the closing question tothis interview, Javier, is what
advice would you give companieslike yours in regard to
partnering? Because partnering,you know, the one thing that
you've stressed is how importantpartnering is. So what advice
would you give companies likeyours about partnering?
Javier Lozano (35:55):
So the first advice is to be ethical. The
second advice is quid pro quo,which is win to win. I was
thinking, what is going to winmy partner? I am thinking in my
partner, what how he can win? Ifhe wins, I win.
Not the idea of 21st centurypartnering. I win and then
(36:17):
everybody, no. No. We are welove the long term partnership.
We'll have partners many years,and we are very happy to see
them because they earn moneywith us.
We earn money with them. We arehappy because we see that the
customers are happy. This is theethicality is very important.
It's, of course, long termrelationship and commitment and,
(36:42):
of course, efforts. No?
We have to work with theprograms and follow the business
and being professionals thatthis is something very
important, of course. No.Because sometimes maybe you find
someone that wants to dosomething, but maybe it's not
the right company or the rightgroup of people. But for us,
(37:02):
long term and how the thepartner is going to win. If some
partner wants to have partners,what they have to know to think
is how they are going to achievebusiness, not only squeeze them.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:13):
Gotcha. No. I love that passion. I love that
passion.
Javier Lozano (37:18):
Thank you.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:19):
It goes a long way. It goes a long, long way.
Javier Lozano (37:21):
Long term relationships are the most
profitable ones.
Rudy Rodriguez (37:25):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Anthony Carrano (37:27):
That's a great word.
Javier Lozano (37:30):
Yeah, I think that is the only way because if
you trust and you get it and asyou know very well to get trust
from others is a long termthing. This is why, you can have
good solutions and thecompanies, the end user or the
(37:50):
company, the final customer, seeus as a team is and and
appreciate this kind of panel.This is why I love very much the
activity of the IAMCP. I thinkthis is very important. I think
we need to to work more ingiving, this kind of of,
business cases, opportunities.
(38:12):
For us is sometimes issurprising. The very high value
that the IAMCP is giving to allthe community and how the
partners sometimes they don'tvalue that. It's because, and
for us, it's incredible how yougive a lot of business and how
you give opportunities. Andmaybe because it's easy. I don't
know why. But they don't valuethis this partnership.
(38:34):
I know that because I am inother in other associations. And
I know how they work. And I knowthe difficultIES, the very- here
is much much easier because wehave the most of most of the
technologies are similar. Weknow the same.
But sometimes, you know, theyhave this jealousy situations.
These are this partner is goingto give me it's going to take
(38:55):
me. But if you study the therelationship, I think maybe 90%
of all the partners have manypoints in common to develop
their own businesses.
Anthony Carrano (39:05):
Well, that's a great word, Javier. And really
we really appreciate you beingon. This was a fantastic
interview. A lot of wonderful,wonderful insights. So thank
you.
Javier Lozano (39:16):
Thank you very much.
Anthony Carrano (39:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. As we wrap up, what
are some ways how can listenersfind out more information about
you and Nanfor and all the workthat y'all are doing?
Javier Lozano (39:26):
So they can find in our web, we have contact
there. They can find me inLinkedIn. I am g a v l o z,
Jablov, Javier Lozano. And theycan call me too. I am in
LinkedIn.
And of course, we have a groupof we have our our own Copilot
that can give advice to abouthow to partner with us in our
(39:49):
web. They they can find our ownCopilot service to agent that
they can give you information.But I will be very glad to be in
contact with, any partner thatcan want to know about our
business and how we can engageand have a relationship with
them.
Anthony Carrano (40:06):
Excellent. Excellent. I'll include be sure
to include all those links inour show notes. Well, this does
it for today. Once again, thankyou, Javier.
This was fantastic. You have agreat day.
Javier Lozano (40:16):
Thank you very much to you all. Thank you. Same
to you. Have a very nice day.
Rudy Rodriguez (40:21):
Take care.
Anthony Carrano (40:25):
Wow. That was a great episode. I really
appreciate, Javier's, you know,excitement and his passion, for
learning. I mean, it wasinfectious.
Rudy Rodriguez (40:35):
Yes. It was. There was a lot of passion in
Javier's voice. Once he gotwarmed up, he he really got
going. I really enjoyed that.
Anthony Carrano (40:44):
He did. He did. And I also just, you know,
having, and he sounds like he'sreally not only appreciative,
but also just a real contributorto the IAMCP community. So it
was great getting his, you know,perspective, you know, on all
that. I mean, I reallyappreciated at the end his
advice to partners.
I mean, I just thought it wasso, you know, just succinct and
(41:06):
powerful. First and foremost,you know, just the importance on
being ethical. Right? And allthat that implies. And, you
know, coupled with that islooking to, you know, always
create win win, you know, forobviously, for yourself, your
own company, but also for yourpartner.
And this combination that of,you know, being ethical and
always looking to create, youknow, win win situations leads
(41:29):
to the third point about havingthe perspective that good long
term relationships areprofitable ones. But how you
gotta be ethical, and you'vegotta go look to create those
win wins, which helps, you know,really facilitate those good
long term relationships. And soit was great just hearing him
just share some of the storiesas well as some of your own
(41:50):
stories, Rudy, as you guys haveboth, you know, been, you know,
in the ecosystem for a longtime. So it's really just
refreshing to hear.
Rudy Rodriguez (41:57):
No. I really enjoyed it and especially the
the innovative approach thathe's taken to his business,
learning as a service, that'staken a long time to evolve. And
having been in that business atthe early onset in way back even
in the 1990's, it really hasevolved considerably. And the
approach that he takes ofworking through partners,
(42:19):
that's, you know, I reallyappreciate his patience and
passion in teaching partners,the value of learning, because
when you teach partners andcustomers, the value of learning
and how to use the technologymore efficiently, more properly,
they develop more depth and thatbreeds loyalty in your employees
(42:40):
as well, because employeesalways wanna wanna work for
people who are continuouslylearning. As I mentioned in the
interview, learning is alifelong process.
And one way to keep happyemployees is to continuously
train them. So they know theirjobs well, and they know how to
execute, and then they teachtheir customers how to execute.
(43:02):
And we learned that in anotherinterview that we did earlier
today, that learning is, isvaluable. And if you teach your
customers how to use thetechnology properly, then
they'll be law be lifelongcustomers, and those are the
profitable ones. Those arethat's really great to know. And
I appreciate Javier's passion insharing that with us.
Anthony Carrano (43:25):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Just also too, I
really appreciated how you justtalked about just the importance
of understanding the needs ofthe customer and, you know,
coupling that with a commitmentto always give them, you know,
your best. And if, you know,more and more just realize that,
you know, building, delivering,you know, and just ensuring, you
(43:46):
know, amazing customerexperiences is the best form of
marketing and I bet, you know,one of the best ways that, you
know, businesses can reallygrow, you know, their own
business. So I reallyappreciated him sharing that.
Rudy Rodriguez (43:57):
Same here. And, you know, the other thing I
wanna share about this, with ourlisteners, the chapter in Spain
is one of the most engaged IAMCPchapters in the world. Everyone
I've ever met from there is justas passionate as Javier was. So
I really appreciate that. Iwanna thank, all of our
listeners for joining us todayon this episode of IAMCP
(44:19):
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