February 2, 2024 • 35 mins
Discover how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) navigated the rocky economic landscape of 2023, as we sit down with Khurjekar , Chief Revenue Officer, Business Markets and SaaS for Verizon Business. She offers a wealth of knowledge on overcoming challenges like inflation and capital access, while also providing insight on leveraging technology for operational efficiency. Aparna sheds light on the strategic tech investments that are enabling SMBs to not only endure current economic pressures but also to improve customer experiences and make smarter business choices.
Alongside Aparna, we explore the critical 'four Cs' that act as the backbone for businesses striving in a digital-first economy. The discussion also raises awareness about the importance of SMBs protecting themselves against the rising tide of cybersecurity threats, adding a layer of urgency for companies to adopt robust digital defenses.
As we cast our gaze forward, we examine the exciting prospects that cutting-edge technologies like augmented and virtual reality, telematics, and the Internet of Things hold for transforming industries. We share how Verizon's Connect telematics system is already making a significant impact on vehicle fleet management, and we discuss the promising economic outlook for 2024, reflecting a spirit of optimism among SMBs. Our conversation is a testament to the resilience and innovation of small businesses, a celebration of their contribution to the economy, and a commitment to keeping you informed on the latest in retail innovation.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello everyone.
My name is Mark Price and I ama member of the Brain Trust at
RetailWire, which isRetailWirecom, a central
location for cutting edgethinking about the trends that
are going on in retail today.
I'm very lucky today to have aspecial guest with us, and I'm
(00:34):
going to let Aparna introduceherself and give us a little bit
of background on her role atVerizon, and maybe a little bit
about how you got to be doingwhat you're doing as well.
So, aparna, tell us some thingsabout you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Sure, hello, mark, I'm here in New Jersey, quite
cold here.
Very nice to be here on thispodcast.
So Aparna Kurjaker and I am theChief Revenue Officer for
Verizon Business small andmedium and when I say small and
medium it's anything with FTEunder a thousand, so under a
thousand employees, so you'rereally talking about a large
(01:11):
swath.
Almost about 99.7% ofbusinesses in the US fit in that
and we've got about 30 millionof them in, over 30 million of
them in the US.
And my remit really is toactually strategize, bring the
right products and solutions atthe right value proposition to
(01:31):
the customers, the businessesthat we serve across the country
, across all channels I'mtalking frontline salespeople,
I'm talking tele sales, digitalpartner channels and also bring
in SaaS solutions that Verizoneither partners or develops
(01:52):
within Verizon.
And you asked a little bit, mark, about myself and how I got
here.
I call myself an accidentalsalesperson.
I am a technologist.
I actually started in Bell Labsas a software developer doing
chips at design, always in thetelecom industry.
Got a chance to work inMotorola on a whole bunch of
(02:12):
marquee devices like the Razor,dating myself If anybody
remembers that device, I call itthe first through smartphone
and in Verizon I have donevarious jobs, including really
managing the network and doingthe operations for the network,
doing products on the consumerside, doing digital and then,
(02:33):
finally, I found myself here andjust loving the job and loving
bringing everything, includingthe core technology, to the fore
to serve our customers in thesmall and medium space.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That is great.
Now, as you look at the smalland medium space, which, as you
mentioned, is an enormouspercentage of businesses in the
United States, 2023 was unusual.
There were so many things goingon globally, as well as
domestically, to lead smallbusinesses to really struggle
(03:08):
with their direction goingforward.
Now, obviously, in your role,you've had to really try to get
an understanding of what smalland medium sized businesses are
thinking about, and I wonderedif you could just from a
perspective of 2023, just giveus a little bit of background
about what was in the head ofyour customers and you may want
(03:32):
to say you know the reallysmaller ones, maybe the medium
and the larger ones.
You may want to break it.
I don't know if they all hadthe same issues or not.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, mark, you bring up a very good point.
I mean, sometimes we just putwith a paintbrush, just say SMB,
and you know, it's kind ofsuddenly, miraculously,
everything under that swat ofthat moniker, right, smb.
But honestly, there arecompanies of all different
shapes and sizes, some earlystage companies, some companies
(04:04):
that are perfectly okay in theservice industry, especially
with five and 10 people, andsome that are 500 to 1000 that
are literally touchingenterprises right, the MetCap
company.
So we see everything in acrossthe board.
The good news is that all ofthem have kind of similar
headwinds and tailwinds and,quite like, where the
(04:25):
enterprises are, how thosetailwinds or headwinds impact
them can be different, dependingon how deep their pockets are,
which typically, for small andmedium businesses, aren't that
deep.
The access to capital, whichtypically, when your inflation's
high interest rates are high,isn't that accessible, right.
So those things change, but theheadwinds stayed the same.
(04:47):
You call that 2023 as a uniqueyear and honestly, we were
hoping all of us were that 23was a little bit of a.
You know, let's get back intothe steady state after the
pandemic and all that we saw asthe aftermath of that,
especially through supply chaindisruption and just sort of this
whole question on are thecustomers coming back, are they
(05:08):
coming back into the stores, arethey staying digital and such
23 did not really end up wherewe wanted it to be, because
there was a lot of volatility,especially given, as you called
out, the geopolitical landscapeand what it did in terms of the
uncertainties, what we saw outin China and others, but most
importantly, with the inflationand the way it was on the rise,
(05:31):
and what we saw really was, intimes like that, companies
across the board,notwithstanding the size and
what stage they're in, reallyhunkered down.
So the thing that we saw was alot of the ambitious projects on
the top line kind of eitherslowed down or were put on pause
(05:52):
, and a lot of the costinitiatives.
Be it.
Hey, how do I use my dollarstowards marketing the right way,
or how do I make sure that I amusing workforce and support for
the workforce the right waywith data analytics and
leveraging the right kinds ofsolutions and automation, or how
am I thinking about betterserving the customer from a
(06:13):
customer experience perspective?
Those things came to the fore,but, regardless, what I will
tell you is independent ofwhether it's already respective,
whether it's the top line orthe cost measures.
Technology was in the forefrontof every discussion that we've
had, and when I say technologyit starts with kind of ensuring
(06:36):
that they've got the basics oftechnology done and then finding
the right solutions that canhelp them with the efficiencies.
Majority of the projects we sawwere in that realm.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That makes a lot of sense.
I'm sure that the fear of arecession which did not come in
2023, combined with interestrates being as high as they were
and the cost of raw materialsand the products that retailers
sell continuing to go up and theretailers not having a lot of
(07:14):
margin to give away to try tokeep prices consistent.
In many cases, the retailerswere forced to pass it along to
customers, who looked at it asyet another sign of their
personal budgets gettingsqueezed, which tended to mean
they were more thoughtful aboutpurchases.
They forego purchases ordelayed them.
(07:38):
The consumers did, whichtranslated, it seemed, from what
you said, into the experienceof the retailers as well, doing
exactly the same thing.
Now, you can't talk about 23without talking about AI.
Ai was a huge game changer in23, at least in consumer
(08:02):
perceptions, not necessarily inwhat happened in 23, but it
created a lot of fear.
I'm wondering, as you talk tocustomers, as you talk to your
salespeople, what happened andwhat did it mean?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You are right.
I think, mark, you hit it onthe nail.
The consumers suddenly woke upto this whole story around
artificial intelligence and howit is that we can build from
there.
What I will tell you is,without knowing or calling it AI
, or knowing that they wereusing AI, my sales team and the
(08:44):
consumers were already seeingthe benefits from different
businesses starting to use AI.
What do I mean by that?
I will not go into thedifferentiation of ML versus
deep learning, versus cognitiveversus AI, versus what we're
talking now about gen AI.
What I will tell you is thepure models.
(09:05):
Taking a lot of data, doing theassessment and creating pure
models that can actually help usdefine how to move next have
been in vogue across a lot ofsolutions.
If a company is using the rightkinds of solutions to ensure
that they've got the rightmarketing ROI, the dollar is
(09:26):
going towards the right channeland they're leveraging it for
the right kind of a demand gen,they're using AI.
If you're using any form of achatbot in your customer service
which, by the way, we arestarting to see a lot of small
medium businesses get to,especially with the paucity of
skilled labor and the increasethat they're seeing in workforce
(09:48):
costs.
They're using AI If they'reusing it for fraud or security.
Verizon offers a whole bunch ofsecurity solutions where we are
constantly monitoring every bitand byte that's passing over
our network.
We are using AI to beascertaining what kinds of
traffic is moving across, andwhat is it that we should be
(10:09):
doing today and next?
Ai is already being in use.
I was talking about sales.
My sales team is leveraging alot of tools that some homegrown
, some third parties that we'veintegrated together, to actually
be able to help them serve thecustomer better.
What is this customer about?
What is it that they need?
How is it that I can serve them?
(10:30):
It's the next best action.
That's all AI.
The good news is, ai is not new, although it may be embedded in
the solutions that you're using.
The even better news is that,with the real big walk story
around AI now, everybody isstarting to leverage that in big
(10:50):
ways so that we can find moreefficiencies, both for top line
as well as for the margins.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It sounds like what you're saying is that these
retailers may not, in theirminds, be necessarily using AI.
They're using tools, maybetools that are similar to what
they used before, but they'reusing them in much bigger,
broader and more meaningful ways.
And oh, by the way, in the backroom don't tell anybody there's
(11:21):
a bunch of AI spinning awaythat is improving it.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So solutions are getting more and more
sophisticated.
As these models are getting alot more sophisticated, they're
getting better solutions,they're getting more efficiency
from these solutions, and thereare newer and newer kinds of
solutions that are available foralmost everything.
You know how we used to saythere's an app for that, there's
now an AI for that.
Right and now?
(11:47):
we're starting to improve onthat.
It could be embedded in a SaaSsolution.
It could be embedded in what itis that you're already doing
and leveraging.
But that's the goodness andthat's what is extremely
exciting.
The thing that we get reallyexcited about is for AI or any
of these technologies to run,you really need what we call our
(12:09):
foresees and the customer'sforesees, and I'm talking about
any business.
It starts with making sure thatyour bits and bytes can transfer
from humans to machines, to thenext machine, to the next human
, and that's all aboutconnectivity, and we are all
about kind of reducing thedigital divide there, improving
(12:29):
the connectivity with all ourinvestments there.
Then you move into making surethat it is secure.
So cybersecurity and ensuringthat the end to end device
protection, network protection,data protections all accounted
for Right, just with theincrease that we are seeing and
you'd be surprised, mark, many atimes I'm talking to small and
(12:49):
medium businesses and they'renot aware.
They're like, oh yeah, thatwhole ransomware thing, that's
all an enterprise, because youhear these big companies being
ransomware and held hostage.
But honestly, what's happeningis majority of the ransomware
attacks are happening in thesmall and medium businesses
because they're easier andquicker to get and majority of
(13:11):
them are for financial gains, somaking sure that's yes.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
My perception on that is that the ransomware is just
simply trolling out there foranywhere they can get into and
because there are so many SMBsout there, they just end up
doing a lot of that.
Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You're right, I'm taking you for my next sales
call.
We can make sure that the smalland medium businesses start
becoming a lot more aware ofthat.
The third piece then becomesyou have, with this hybrid
workforce even for small andmedium, a lot of people either
in the business or sittingoutside needing to communicate.
(13:51):
So collaboration tools, theright kinds of tools that you
can be offering out to yourcustomers to be available 24
seven as well as to youremployees very important.
And once you have these threeCs, the fourth one is very
important also cloud and how itis that your data strategy is
situated.
A lot of small and mediumbusinesses are starting cloud
(14:14):
native.
Many of them are hybrid.
And that helps because once youhave this platform of the four
Cs, now you can be talking aboutwhat SaaS solutions do I need
for my online presence?
What do I need for myproductivity tools?
What do I need for CX?
And start building thatportfolio the right way and
solve for the customer needs.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Excellent.
So can you go through the fourCs one more time?
So connectivity was the firstone, communication was the last.
Okay, cyber security, yep.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The third one is making sure that on top of it,
you've got the collaborationtools and the cloud and honestly
, we help every company, nomatter what size, really think
through their portfolio ofsolutions across these four
firsts Sure up your connectivity, make sure it's secure, make
sure you're bringing in theright collaboration tools from
(15:12):
Verizon elsewhere we have awhole bunch that absolutely work
for every size of small, mediumand enterprise business.
And then make sure that you'vegot the right choices you're
making on cloud on top of it.
Now you're set to move into theworld and you know what you
wanna pick an AI solution orsolution based on AI.
You've got that.
(15:32):
You wanna use Gen AI andleverage any of the chatbot
functionalities and such thatare starting to show up there
with natural language processing.
You've got that as anopportunity and you can start
building from there, and I'msure you're seeing this as well.
But we love the opportunity forsmall medium businesses to
compete almost in a democratizedway, right?
(15:54):
Because, one, they have accessto a lot of these solutions.
But two, guess who is morepropense to going and taking
these on and taking on a littlebit of the risk to say I don't
know how this is gonna work.
Let me test the solution.
It's that small medium businessbecause they're nimble and they
are really trying to godifferentiate, so they're almost
(16:15):
at the forefront most of thetimes because of that, in
adopting technology.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
How do you balance that then, aparna, with the fact
that they have limitedresources?
Because when I ran a smallcompany, I used to say that I
could put.
The good news is it was mycompany.
I could put a chip on anynumber on the roulette wheel
that I wanted.
The bad news is I only had fourchips.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That's right, and this is where I think we come in
to help them with just makingsure what is absolutely
non-negotiable like don't skimpon your connectivity.
Let's just make sure thatyou've got the right security on
it right.
Let's make sure that you areable to communicate very
reliably.
On top of that, and now whatyou've got to do is really
(16:58):
decide on where it is thatyou're standing with your value
proposition and yourdifferentiation right.
Are you a cloud native company,a digital first company, and
where is it that, then, youinvest there?
What is your marketing strategyto tie to that?
You may not know this, but oneof the things that Verizon does
is we have a CSR group that hasinvested heavily in a Verizon
(17:21):
digital ready platform only forsmall and medium businesses.
And, mark, what we do is wehelp a lot of these small and
medium businesses.
Come in and learn what it meansto run a business, what it
means to be positive andprofitable and how you grow, and
where is it that you need to betaking chances.
You can even bring in mentorsand really serve them in a way
(17:44):
where they're thinking abouttheir business holistically.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
That is great.
Let me switch subjects for youand just ask you about some
other technology that with theCES show, the Consumer
Electronics show, just finishingup Once again, we've seen a lot
about AR, VR, so virtualreality goggles and glasses and
(18:11):
in prior years there was a lotof noise about this and it
didn't seem to cross the chasm,it didn't seem to become in any
way mainstream.
I was wondering, from yourperspective, you know, as you
look at the technologies outthere, do you think this is the
year coming ahead where thisbecomes mainstream, or are we
(18:32):
still a few years out?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah.
So here's the thing AR, vr,anything around robotics very,
very important innovationshappening there.
We've also heard some bigcompanies get into the fray this
year.
Right, we're looking forward tosome new AR goggles that you
know I'm sure are going to bethe sort of that.
Next pushing the envelope.
(18:56):
My take on this is at the pricepoint we are at, there are
going to be niche solutionswe're seeing them even in
mid-sized companies on thefactory floors for training but
those are niche solutions.
If you want scale, we're goingto have to get one zero out,
possibly even two zeros out,from that price tag and until
(19:19):
that happens, I think theinnovation in terms of content
as well as the use cases areonly going to be few and far
between.
Does that happen this year?
I suspect not, but I thinkwe'll keep seeing that envelope
getting pushed in each and everyyear.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I would agree with you 100%, and I saw that the
goggles are still, you know,1,300, 1,500, 3,500.
In no way is it going to becomemainstream when it's.
If you imagine how iPhonesmigrated up to be $1,000 items.
They didn't start that way andthen, over time, there were more
(20:01):
features, more benefits and theprice kept going up.
This has started all the way atthe top and as a result of it,
it's going to be for specifickinds of business uses which I
think are fascinating,particularly for training.
It can be amazing, but for amainstream consumer audience, I
(20:23):
can't really see that happening.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah.
And we didn't even talk aboutsort of the experience and how
comfortable people are withwearing a glass all the time and
there's more work to be donefrom an ergonomics and the
comfort level, the ease, but Iguess generally the word it is
that the world is moving there.
You are going to have thesesmart devices, augmented virtual
(20:49):
reality for the right kinds ofsolutions and extending them
into.
You know more and more of thatworld where everything's
connected and, if you add, goahead.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yes, I'm going to say if you add AI, exactly, ai
would permit it to have morecapabilities over time, but the
cost is still at the moment anoverwhelming barrier to entry.
Do you have a couple caseexamples of specific clients,
maybe in the smaller and in thelarger, where you've really made
(21:24):
a difference in 23 in what theywere going to do when they
started?
You came in and you were, ineffect, a force extender, so you
were more staff, but you werealso a thought extender to help
them do things that they neverreally thought about doing.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, so I have 1.6 million of those.
Where do you want me to start?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
How about a small one ?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, so, but I will tell you across the board, day
in and day out and I personallycall customers, those who were
with us, those who leave us,sometimes few of them how we can
bring them back, and we learn aton and we keep improving.
One of the things that we aretrying to do is make sure that
we bring a complete portfolio ofsolutions to these customers.
(22:11):
So we have tremendous number ofexamples and how it is that
we've been able to transformmid-sized companies, small-sized
companies, with a box now whichthey can connect, don't have to
wait for the truck roll to comein and do connectivity in a big
way.
So Jake was talking about theinternet that he has.
(22:32):
We love fiber, but where thereis in fiber, we've got a box.
Literally, I can ship it to youtoday.
You plug it in, turn it on andyou can connect multiple devices
to that box through Wi-Fi andthat has 5G in the back end and
it can take you back intowherever it is that you want to
connect.
And we have seen businesses foodtrucks, for example just light
(22:56):
up businesses temporarysolutions, like in construction,
where it takes months to getconnectivity into a construction
site and by then yourconstruction may even be done
where now all that they do isplace the order.
Next day they have theconnectivity and imagine the
kinds of solutions I see withthat construction company light
(23:20):
up on day one, not just to startconnecting outside but also
within.
One of the areas that we arestarting to move into in a big
way is through solutions likeConnect that we have, which is
an aftermarket.
Telematics is making sure thatwe're bringing a lot of
connectivity into devices andconnecting that with the
(23:43):
enterprise solutions as well,and we're seeing some huge
amount of growth there, not tosay now, and this was a little
bit of a surprise for me.
You may have heard of privatenetworks.
These are solutions that we cancreate and stand up a
completely secure, deterministicnetwork, your own network in a
(24:06):
warehouse on a factory floor andan entire building and lots of
companies.
Just yesterday I was talking toa company in which is a firm
and we have a private network onthe firm and they're using it
to connect a lot of their agtech solutions within the
network and also help consumerswith Wi-Fi there in a much
(24:29):
broader coverage.
So lots and lots of examplesacross all industries.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
So two questions for you.
You mentioned telematics.
Not everyone, I think, knowswhat telematics is.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat that is, how you enable it
and what the benefit is?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you for asking that.
So telematics is connectingcars in a way where you can be
bringing in sophisticatedsolutions into the cars and
taking a lot of the data fromthe car to ensure that you are
doing predictive maintenance,travel logs, where is it that
you can be improving on yourfuel consumptions and such?
(25:10):
So Verizon has a solutioncalled Verizon Connect.
It's our own solution which weoffer for commercial vehicles.
So think about a lawn mowingcompany having their own set of
vehicles, or think about a eventhe postal services having their
vehicles, connecting them in away where the drivers get the
(25:33):
right kind of information andthe company can get the right
information to connect back intoenterprise on driver routing,
car usage, idle time and also,through video, any form of
driver distraction and savinglives through that.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
So lots of great examples with telematics that
we're seeing and we areabsolutely predicting every car
out there being connected, everyvehicle out there being
connected for these reasons, Nowpeople might look at that and
get concerned because they wouldfeel like they're losing their
privacy in some way and it wouldcontribute more to being
(26:20):
watched all the time.
How do you explain the benefitsI'm thinking more at the
smaller businesses so that thepeople who are using, who are
going out on repair calls, forexample, for a heating and air
(26:40):
conditioning company, and you'vegot five texts and they go out,
how do you keep them fromgetting upset or losing the
message and the noise?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
So the first thing I will tell you is, through a lot
of requirements coming from thegovernment the FTC, eld
requirements such companies haveto keep a log of driver hours,
vehicle hours, routes and such,so it's absolutely a requirement
that's coming in in mostindustries.
(27:15):
Secondly, this is a win-winsituation because the driver and
I have personally seen videoswhere the driver may get
distracted and instantly thisdevice is beeping and telling
the driver you got to getfocused again because you're
about to go get into a collisionof some sort.
(27:36):
So we are making sure that thedriver on the receiving end is
seeing the value.
They're also getting a lot ofprompts on hey, this is a faster
route, or hey, you can save gasin this way, or this is how you
can improve your productivity,and there's a lot of coaching
that's going on around that.
(27:57):
And then, of course, thecompany benefits too.
So we personally have seenlittle to no pushback from the
employees because it's becomingmore of a norm, but there is
also a huge amount of value thatthe company is getting, but
also the driver as well.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
That's great, thank you, and we were talking.
We talked a lot about what yousaw in 23.
So now, as we're starting up inJanuary of 2024, the Fed has
indicated that they're not goingto be increasing interest rates
in the near term.
What do you see in terms of theeconomic outlook?
(28:36):
And then what do you see interms of the outlook that your
customer base has going forward?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah.
So luckily for us, we arestarting to see a little bit of
the easing of the flow ofcapital.
We saw it even in the CPI, theconsumer index, through November
and December.
We had and lots of retailersmost of the retailers had a good
November, a good December, goodholiday season.
That's just a good kind ofindicator on what's coming.
(29:09):
We are starting to see a littlebit of the opening of like yes,
we had this project on pause, wewant to go ahead and execute on
it.
We are expanding, we are goingto go build a few more.
So we are starting to see someof the sites and we need more
connectivity.
So we're already starting tosee sort of the precursors of
the opening up.
Yet there is a little bit ofthe let's wait and watch.
(29:33):
I think the one thing thatespecially companies of this
size small and medium havelearned through COVID is they've
got to make sure that they arealways, always looking out a
little more around the cornerand bracing for that and keeping
a little bit of the market forthose rainy days.
So this is where we see,definitely see them being
(29:56):
cautiously optimistic.
The other piece is we aregetting a lot of questions on
like hey, how are you using AIVerizon?
What is it that we can be doingwith AI?
How is it that you wouldsuggest we use IoT and the right
kinds of solutions to integrateback?
So that's good news, which isboth again from a top line,
(30:16):
right kinds of growth, but alsofrom an efficiency measure.
It can help them and definitelysomething that they can
continue to build on.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
That's great and I'm going to call you back.
Can you define IoT and then saya little bit about how people
use that?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yes, and thank you for asking about that, and I
should have mentioned earlier.
So, internet of Things.
Actually, 10 years ago, when Istarted in the space of IoT, it
was called machine to machine,so some of them, some of you may
know it as machine to machine,but it's really Internet of
Things and what this is istaking any device that's out
there and connecting it back soit could be your watch.
(30:55):
It's an IoT device, but it'salso sensors or asset trackers,
so you've got something which isa heavy equipment and you want
to track it, what I called outwith VZ Connect.
That is a perfect example of anInternet of Things.
It's connected back into theInternet and what we can do is,
say, a company has a warehouse.
(31:16):
How do you tag every asset inthat warehouse and make sure
that you know the whereabouts ofthat, what's going on a pallet
and where is that palletcurrently if you need to go
track it.
That's a perfect example froman asset tracking perspective.
Utility companies are lookingat IoT to make sure every meter
is connected back into theirmain system, so we've got
(31:40):
connectivity there.
The good news on each one ofthese is they need to connect
back into the mothership, andthat's where Verizon comes in in
a big way.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And one of the real benefits of being able to
connect that is to be able topredict in advance when machines
are going to break down, sothat if you know that a machine
is likely to break down nextweek, you can do maintenance on
it this week and then have itnot break down.
So you should be able to seesuperior performance, and that
(32:10):
is both on the business side andon the consumer side.
That is so well said, so itactually it has a tremendous
predictive analytics, combinedwith IoT, is the game changer.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, predictive fault tolerance and predictive
analysis Analytics is a hugedeal and definitely one of the
big mainstays of IoT, I agree.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
So it has been a complete delight to talk to you
today.
Is there anything else that youwould like to add to our
podcast audience, as we talkabout SMB and, you know, the
market going forward?
Is there anything that we'vemissed in our conversation?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
No, I think this was a great conversation.
The one thing I would add is,sometimes, as we're talking to
these businesses who may not bedigitally savvy as yet, or who
may be digitally native butdon't know where to go next, who
may be in the early stages andtrying to figure out how is it
that they scale All that Irequest them to do is just stop
(33:13):
by in one of the Verizon stores,go to our website, get a tech
check with us.
It doesn't cost you anything,but we are help you because we
want to make sure we're buildingthe US economy in a way that
one SMB is being built and wewant to be there to as their
trusted partners eat SMB, one ata time, no matter what shape
(33:37):
and size, no matter what, whatindustry they're coming in with
construction or retail orservice we're here to help them
work.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
And I think you also mentioned the training and
support you have to help themactually in the running of their
businesses, not just in how doyou sell more Verizon product,
but you can actually help thesebusinesses succeed overall.
Thank you, that seems to besomething that's something that
some of the smaller businessesparticularly might really want
to take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so Verizon Digital Ready platform.
You don't even have to be aVerizon customer to do this.
You can get on their website,get on our website there on the
Digital Ready platform.
That are a whole bunch ofpodcasts, training materials how
you manage your financials, howyou go look for aid.
We also have our own aid thatwe provide in terms of dollars.
(34:28):
We also have some pro bono workthat we do for legal support.
We can connect you with rightmentors in the industry as well.
So go check us out, becausewe're here again to help the
small medium businesses grow.
They're the backbone of the USeconomy and we want to see that
backbone get stronger andstronger and stronger.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
That's a perfect way to end the conversation today.
Thank you so much for your time.
Just to remind everyone, thispodcast is brought to you by
RetailWire.
You can find us atretailwirecom, where we try to
bring to you the latest thinkingin retail, from supply chain to
products, to pricing, toanalytics, to artificial
(35:11):
intelligence.
We try to be on the cuttingedge and provide that as a
service to people who arelearning more about retail every
day, because it is constantlychanging every day.
So thank you very much and Iwish everyone a great day.
Hello everyone.
My name is Mark Price and I ama member of the Brain Trust at
RetailWire, which isRetailWirecom, a central
location for cutting edgethinking about the trends that
are going on in retail today.
I'm very lucky today to have aspecial guest with us, and I'm
(00:34):
going to let Aparna introduceherself and give us a little bit
of background on her role atVerizon, and maybe a little bit
about how you got to be doingwhat you're doing as well.
So, aparna, tell us some thingsabout you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Sure, hello, mark, I'm here in New Jersey, quite
cold here.
Very nice to be here on thispodcast.
So Aparna Kurjaker and I am theChief Revenue Officer for
Verizon Business small andmedium and when I say small and
medium it's anything with FTEunder a thousand, so under a
thousand employees, so you'rereally talking about a large
(01:11):
swath.
Almost about 99.7% ofbusinesses in the US fit in that
and we've got about 30 millionof them in, over 30 million of
them in the US.
And my remit really is toactually strategize, bring the
right products and solutions atthe right value proposition to
(01:31):
the customers, the businessesthat we serve across the country
, across all channels I'mtalking frontline salespeople,
I'm talking tele sales, digitalpartner channels and also bring
in SaaS solutions that Verizoneither partners or develops
(01:52):
within Verizon.
And you asked a little bit, mark, about myself and how I got
here.
I call myself an accidentalsalesperson.
I am a technologist.
I actually started in Bell Labsas a software developer doing
chips at design, always in thetelecom industry.
Got a chance to work inMotorola on a whole bunch of
(02:12):
marquee devices like the Razor,dating myself If anybody
remembers that device, I call itthe first through smartphone
and in Verizon I have donevarious jobs, including really
managing the network and doingthe operations for the network,
doing products on the consumerside, doing digital and then,
(02:33):
finally, I found myself here andjust loving the job and loving
bringing everything, includingthe core technology, to the fore
to serve our customers in thesmall and medium space.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That is great.
Now, as you look at the smalland medium space, which, as you
mentioned, is an enormouspercentage of businesses in the
United States, 2023 was unusual.
There were so many things goingon globally, as well as
domestically, to lead smallbusinesses to really struggle
(03:08):
with their direction goingforward.
Now, obviously, in your role,you've had to really try to get
an understanding of what smalland medium sized businesses are
thinking about, and I wonderedif you could just from a
perspective of 2023, just giveus a little bit of background
about what was in the head ofyour customers and you may want
(03:32):
to say you know the reallysmaller ones, maybe the medium
and the larger ones.
You may want to break it.
I don't know if they all hadthe same issues or not.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, mark, you bring up a very good point.
I mean, sometimes we just putwith a paintbrush, just say SMB,
and you know, it's kind ofsuddenly, miraculously,
everything under that swat ofthat moniker, right, smb.
But honestly, there arecompanies of all different
shapes and sizes, some earlystage companies, some companies
(04:04):
that are perfectly okay in theservice industry, especially
with five and 10 people, andsome that are 500 to 1000 that
are literally touchingenterprises right, the MetCap
company.
So we see everything in acrossthe board.
The good news is that all ofthem have kind of similar
headwinds and tailwinds and,quite like, where the
(04:25):
enterprises are, how thosetailwinds or headwinds impact
them can be different, dependingon how deep their pockets are,
which typically, for small andmedium businesses, aren't that
deep.
The access to capital, whichtypically, when your inflation's
high interest rates are high,isn't that accessible, right.
So those things change, but theheadwinds stayed the same.
(04:47):
You call that 2023 as a uniqueyear and honestly, we were
hoping all of us were that 23was a little bit of a.
You know, let's get back intothe steady state after the
pandemic and all that we saw asthe aftermath of that,
especially through supply chaindisruption and just sort of this
whole question on are thecustomers coming back, are they
(05:08):
coming back into the stores, arethey staying digital and such
23 did not really end up wherewe wanted it to be, because
there was a lot of volatility,especially given, as you called
out, the geopolitical landscapeand what it did in terms of the
uncertainties, what we saw outin China and others, but most
importantly, with the inflationand the way it was on the rise,
(05:31):
and what we saw really was, intimes like that, companies
across the board,notwithstanding the size and
what stage they're in, reallyhunkered down.
So the thing that we saw was alot of the ambitious projects on
the top line kind of eitherslowed down or were put on pause
(05:52):
, and a lot of the costinitiatives.
Be it.
Hey, how do I use my dollarstowards marketing the right way,
or how do I make sure that I amusing workforce and support for
the workforce the right waywith data analytics and
leveraging the right kinds ofsolutions and automation, or how
am I thinking about betterserving the customer from a
(06:13):
customer experience perspective?
Those things came to the fore,but, regardless, what I will
tell you is independent ofwhether it's already respective,
whether it's the top line orthe cost measures.
Technology was in the forefrontof every discussion that we've
had, and when I say technologyit starts with kind of ensuring
(06:36):
that they've got the basics oftechnology done and then finding
the right solutions that canhelp them with the efficiencies.
Majority of the projects we sawwere in that realm.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That makes a lot of sense.
I'm sure that the fear of arecession which did not come in
2023, combined with interestrates being as high as they were
and the cost of raw materialsand the products that retailers
sell continuing to go up and theretailers not having a lot of
(07:14):
margin to give away to try tokeep prices consistent.
In many cases, the retailerswere forced to pass it along to
customers, who looked at it asyet another sign of their
personal budgets gettingsqueezed, which tended to mean
they were more thoughtful aboutpurchases.
They forego purchases ordelayed them.
(07:38):
The consumers did, whichtranslated, it seemed, from what
you said, into the experienceof the retailers as well, doing
exactly the same thing.
Now, you can't talk about 23without talking about AI.
Ai was a huge game changer in23, at least in consumer
(08:02):
perceptions, not necessarily inwhat happened in 23, but it
created a lot of fear.
I'm wondering, as you talk tocustomers, as you talk to your
salespeople, what happened andwhat did it mean?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You are right.
I think, mark, you hit it onthe nail.
The consumers suddenly woke upto this whole story around
artificial intelligence and howit is that we can build from
there.
What I will tell you is,without knowing or calling it AI
, or knowing that they wereusing AI, my sales team and the
(08:44):
consumers were already seeingthe benefits from different
businesses starting to use AI.
What do I mean by that?
I will not go into thedifferentiation of ML versus
deep learning, versus cognitiveversus AI, versus what we're
talking now about gen AI.
What I will tell you is thepure models.
(09:05):
Taking a lot of data, doing theassessment and creating pure
models that can actually help usdefine how to move next have
been in vogue across a lot ofsolutions.
If a company is using the rightkinds of solutions to ensure
that they've got the rightmarketing ROI, the dollar is
(09:26):
going towards the right channeland they're leveraging it for
the right kind of a demand gen,they're using AI.
If you're using any form of achatbot in your customer service
which, by the way, we arestarting to see a lot of small
medium businesses get to,especially with the paucity of
skilled labor and the increasethat they're seeing in workforce
(09:48):
costs.
They're using AI If they'reusing it for fraud or security.
Verizon offers a whole bunch ofsecurity solutions where we are
constantly monitoring every bitand byte that's passing over
our network.
We are using AI to beascertaining what kinds of
traffic is moving across, andwhat is it that we should be
(10:09):
doing today and next?
Ai is already being in use.
I was talking about sales.
My sales team is leveraging alot of tools that some homegrown
, some third parties that we'veintegrated together, to actually
be able to help them serve thecustomer better.
What is this customer about?
What is it that they need?
How is it that I can serve them?
(10:30):
It's the next best action.
That's all AI.
The good news is, ai is not new, although it may be embedded in
the solutions that you're using.
The even better news is that,with the real big walk story
around AI now, everybody isstarting to leverage that in big
(10:50):
ways so that we can find moreefficiencies, both for top line
as well as for the margins.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It sounds like what you're saying is that these
retailers may not, in theirminds, be necessarily using AI.
They're using tools, maybetools that are similar to what
they used before, but they'reusing them in much bigger,
broader and more meaningful ways.
And oh, by the way, in the backroom don't tell anybody there's
(11:21):
a bunch of AI spinning awaythat is improving it.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So solutions are getting more and more
sophisticated.
As these models are getting alot more sophisticated, they're
getting better solutions,they're getting more efficiency
from these solutions, and thereare newer and newer kinds of
solutions that are available foralmost everything.
You know how we used to saythere's an app for that, there's
now an AI for that.
Right and now?
(11:47):
we're starting to improve onthat.
It could be embedded in a SaaSsolution.
It could be embedded in what itis that you're already doing
and leveraging.
But that's the goodness andthat's what is extremely
exciting.
The thing that we get reallyexcited about is for AI or any
of these technologies to run,you really need what we call our
(12:09):
foresees and the customer'sforesees, and I'm talking about
any business.
It starts with making sure thatyour bits and bytes can transfer
from humans to machines, to thenext machine, to the next human
, and that's all aboutconnectivity, and we are all
about kind of reducing thedigital divide there, improving
(12:29):
the connectivity with all ourinvestments there.
Then you move into making surethat it is secure.
So cybersecurity and ensuringthat the end to end device
protection, network protection,data protections all accounted
for Right, just with theincrease that we are seeing and
you'd be surprised, mark, many atimes I'm talking to small and
(12:49):
medium businesses and they'renot aware.
They're like, oh yeah, thatwhole ransomware thing, that's
all an enterprise, because youhear these big companies being
ransomware and held hostage.
But honestly, what's happeningis majority of the ransomware
attacks are happening in thesmall and medium businesses
because they're easier andquicker to get and majority of
(13:11):
them are for financial gains, somaking sure that's yes.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
My perception on that is that the ransomware is just
simply trolling out there foranywhere they can get into and
because there are so many SMBsout there, they just end up
doing a lot of that.
Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You're right, I'm taking you for my next sales
call.
We can make sure that the smalland medium businesses start
becoming a lot more aware ofthat.
The third piece then becomesyou have, with this hybrid
workforce even for small andmedium, a lot of people either
in the business or sittingoutside needing to communicate.
(13:51):
So collaboration tools, theright kinds of tools that you
can be offering out to yourcustomers to be available 24
seven as well as to youremployees very important.
And once you have these threeCs, the fourth one is very
important also cloud and how itis that your data strategy is
situated.
A lot of small and mediumbusinesses are starting cloud
(14:14):
native.
Many of them are hybrid.
And that helps because once youhave this platform of the four
Cs, now you can be talking aboutwhat SaaS solutions do I need
for my online presence?
What do I need for myproductivity tools?
What do I need for CX?
And start building thatportfolio the right way and
solve for the customer needs.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Excellent.
So can you go through the fourCs one more time?
So connectivity was the firstone, communication was the last.
Okay, cyber security, yep.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The third one is making sure that on top of it,
you've got the collaborationtools and the cloud and honestly
, we help every company, nomatter what size, really think
through their portfolio ofsolutions across these four
firsts Sure up your connectivity, make sure it's secure, make
sure you're bringing in theright collaboration tools from
(15:12):
Verizon elsewhere we have awhole bunch that absolutely work
for every size of small, mediumand enterprise business.
And then make sure that you'vegot the right choices you're
making on cloud on top of it.
Now you're set to move into theworld and you know what you
wanna pick an AI solution orsolution based on AI.
You've got that.
(15:32):
You wanna use Gen AI andleverage any of the chatbot
functionalities and such thatare starting to show up there
with natural language processing.
You've got that as anopportunity and you can start
building from there, and I'msure you're seeing this as well.
But we love the opportunity forsmall medium businesses to
compete almost in a democratizedway, right?
(15:54):
Because, one, they have accessto a lot of these solutions.
But two, guess who is morepropense to going and taking
these on and taking on a littlebit of the risk to say I don't
know how this is gonna work.
Let me test the solution.
It's that small medium businessbecause they're nimble and they
are really trying to godifferentiate, so they're almost
(16:15):
at the forefront most of thetimes because of that, in
adopting technology.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
How do you balance that then, aparna, with the fact
that they have limitedresources?
Because when I ran a smallcompany, I used to say that I
could put.
The good news is it was mycompany.
I could put a chip on anynumber on the roulette wheel
that I wanted.
The bad news is I only had fourchips.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That's right, and this is where I think we come in
to help them with just makingsure what is absolutely
non-negotiable like don't skimpon your connectivity.
Let's just make sure thatyou've got the right security on
it right.
Let's make sure that you areable to communicate very
reliably.
On top of that, and now whatyou've got to do is really
(16:58):
decide on where it is thatyou're standing with your value
proposition and yourdifferentiation right.
Are you a cloud native company,a digital first company, and
where is it that, then, youinvest there?
What is your marketing strategyto tie to that?
You may not know this, but oneof the things that Verizon does
is we have a CSR group that hasinvested heavily in a Verizon
(17:21):
digital ready platform only forsmall and medium businesses.
And, mark, what we do is wehelp a lot of these small and
medium businesses.
Come in and learn what it meansto run a business, what it
means to be positive andprofitable and how you grow, and
where is it that you need to betaking chances.
You can even bring in mentorsand really serve them in a way
(17:44):
where they're thinking abouttheir business holistically.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
That is great.
Let me switch subjects for youand just ask you about some
other technology that with theCES show, the Consumer
Electronics show, just finishingup Once again, we've seen a lot
about AR, VR, so virtualreality goggles and glasses and
(18:11):
in prior years there was a lotof noise about this and it
didn't seem to cross the chasm,it didn't seem to become in any
way mainstream.
I was wondering, from yourperspective, you know, as you
look at the technologies outthere, do you think this is the
year coming ahead where thisbecomes mainstream, or are we
(18:32):
still a few years out?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah.
So here's the thing AR, vr,anything around robotics very,
very important innovationshappening there.
We've also heard some bigcompanies get into the fray this
year.
Right, we're looking forward tosome new AR goggles that you
know I'm sure are going to bethe sort of that.
Next pushing the envelope.
(18:56):
My take on this is at the pricepoint we are at, there are
going to be niche solutionswe're seeing them even in
mid-sized companies on thefactory floors for training but
those are niche solutions.
If you want scale, we're goingto have to get one zero out,
possibly even two zeros out,from that price tag and until
(19:19):
that happens, I think theinnovation in terms of content
as well as the use cases areonly going to be few and far
between.
Does that happen this year?
I suspect not, but I thinkwe'll keep seeing that envelope
getting pushed in each and everyyear.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I would agree with you 100%, and I saw that the
goggles are still, you know,1,300, 1,500, 3,500.
In no way is it going to becomemainstream when it's.
If you imagine how iPhonesmigrated up to be $1,000 items.
They didn't start that way andthen, over time, there were more
(20:01):
features, more benefits and theprice kept going up.
This has started all the way atthe top and as a result of it,
it's going to be for specifickinds of business uses which I
think are fascinating,particularly for training.
It can be amazing, but for amainstream consumer audience, I
(20:23):
can't really see that happening.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah.
And we didn't even talk aboutsort of the experience and how
comfortable people are withwearing a glass all the time and
there's more work to be donefrom an ergonomics and the
comfort level, the ease, but Iguess generally the word it is
that the world is moving there.
You are going to have thesesmart devices, augmented virtual
(20:49):
reality for the right kinds ofsolutions and extending them
into.
You know more and more of thatworld where everything's
connected and, if you add, goahead.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yes, I'm going to say if you add AI, exactly, ai
would permit it to have morecapabilities over time, but the
cost is still at the moment anoverwhelming barrier to entry.
Do you have a couple caseexamples of specific clients,
maybe in the smaller and in thelarger, where you've really made
(21:24):
a difference in 23 in what theywere going to do when they
started?
You came in and you were, ineffect, a force extender, so you
were more staff, but you werealso a thought extender to help
them do things that they neverreally thought about doing.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, so I have 1.6 million of those.
Where do you want me to start?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
How about a small one ?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, so, but I will tell you across the board, day
in and day out and I personallycall customers, those who were
with us, those who leave us,sometimes few of them how we can
bring them back, and we learn aton and we keep improving.
One of the things that we aretrying to do is make sure that
we bring a complete portfolio ofsolutions to these customers.
(22:11):
So we have tremendous number ofexamples and how it is that
we've been able to transformmid-sized companies, small-sized
companies, with a box now whichthey can connect, don't have to
wait for the truck roll to comein and do connectivity in a big
way.
So Jake was talking about theinternet that he has.
(22:32):
We love fiber, but where thereis in fiber, we've got a box.
Literally, I can ship it to youtoday.
You plug it in, turn it on andyou can connect multiple devices
to that box through Wi-Fi andthat has 5G in the back end and
it can take you back intowherever it is that you want to
connect.
And we have seen businesses foodtrucks, for example just light
(22:56):
up businesses temporarysolutions, like in construction,
where it takes months to getconnectivity into a construction
site and by then yourconstruction may even be done
where now all that they do isplace the order.
Next day they have theconnectivity and imagine the
kinds of solutions I see withthat construction company light
(23:20):
up on day one, not just to startconnecting outside but also
within.
One of the areas that we arestarting to move into in a big
way is through solutions likeConnect that we have, which is
an aftermarket.
Telematics is making sure thatwe're bringing a lot of
connectivity into devices andconnecting that with the
(23:43):
enterprise solutions as well,and we're seeing some huge
amount of growth there, not tosay now, and this was a little
bit of a surprise for me.
You may have heard of privatenetworks.
These are solutions that we cancreate and stand up a
completely secure, deterministicnetwork, your own network in a
(24:06):
warehouse on a factory floor andan entire building and lots of
companies.
Just yesterday I was talking toa company in which is a firm
and we have a private network onthe firm and they're using it
to connect a lot of their agtech solutions within the
network and also help consumerswith Wi-Fi there in a much
(24:29):
broader coverage.
So lots and lots of examplesacross all industries.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
So two questions for you.
You mentioned telematics.
Not everyone, I think, knowswhat telematics is.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat that is, how you enable it
and what the benefit is?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you for asking that.
So telematics is connectingcars in a way where you can be
bringing in sophisticatedsolutions into the cars and
taking a lot of the data fromthe car to ensure that you are
doing predictive maintenance,travel logs, where is it that
you can be improving on yourfuel consumptions and such?
(25:10):
So Verizon has a solutioncalled Verizon Connect.
It's our own solution which weoffer for commercial vehicles.
So think about a lawn mowingcompany having their own set of
vehicles, or think about a eventhe postal services having their
vehicles, connecting them in away where the drivers get the
(25:33):
right kind of information andthe company can get the right
information to connect back intoenterprise on driver routing,
car usage, idle time and also,through video, any form of
driver distraction and savinglives through that.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
So lots of great examples with telematics that
we're seeing and we areabsolutely predicting every car
out there being connected, everyvehicle out there being
connected for these reasons, Nowpeople might look at that and
get concerned because they wouldfeel like they're losing their
privacy in some way and it wouldcontribute more to being
(26:20):
watched all the time.
How do you explain the benefitsI'm thinking more at the
smaller businesses so that thepeople who are using, who are
going out on repair calls, forexample, for a heating and air
(26:40):
conditioning company, and you'vegot five texts and they go out,
how do you keep them fromgetting upset or losing the
message and the noise?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
So the first thing I will tell you is, through a lot
of requirements coming from thegovernment the FTC, eld
requirements such companies haveto keep a log of driver hours,
vehicle hours, routes and such,so it's absolutely a requirement
that's coming in in mostindustries.
(27:15):
Secondly, this is a win-winsituation because the driver and
I have personally seen videoswhere the driver may get
distracted and instantly thisdevice is beeping and telling
the driver you got to getfocused again because you're
about to go get into a collisionof some sort.
(27:36):
So we are making sure that thedriver on the receiving end is
seeing the value.
They're also getting a lot ofprompts on hey, this is a faster
route, or hey, you can save gasin this way, or this is how you
can improve your productivity,and there's a lot of coaching
that's going on around that.
(27:57):
And then, of course, thecompany benefits too.
So we personally have seenlittle to no pushback from the
employees because it's becomingmore of a norm, but there is
also a huge amount of value thatthe company is getting, but
also the driver as well.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
That's great, thank you, and we were talking.
We talked a lot about what yousaw in 23.
So now, as we're starting up inJanuary of 2024, the Fed has
indicated that they're not goingto be increasing interest rates
in the near term.
What do you see in terms of theeconomic outlook?
(28:36):
And then what do you see interms of the outlook that your
customer base has going forward?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah.
So luckily for us, we arestarting to see a little bit of
the easing of the flow ofcapital.
We saw it even in the CPI, theconsumer index, through November
and December.
We had and lots of retailersmost of the retailers had a good
November, a good December, goodholiday season.
That's just a good kind ofindicator on what's coming.
(29:09):
We are starting to see a littlebit of the opening of like yes,
we had this project on pause, wewant to go ahead and execute on
it.
We are expanding, we are goingto go build a few more.
So we are starting to see someof the sites and we need more
connectivity.
So we're already starting tosee sort of the precursors of
the opening up.
Yet there is a little bit ofthe let's wait and watch.
(29:33):
I think the one thing thatespecially companies of this
size small and medium havelearned through COVID is they've
got to make sure that they arealways, always looking out a
little more around the cornerand bracing for that and keeping
a little bit of the market forthose rainy days.
So this is where we see,definitely see them being
(29:56):
cautiously optimistic.
The other piece is we aregetting a lot of questions on
like hey, how are you using AIVerizon?
What is it that we can be doingwith AI?
How is it that you wouldsuggest we use IoT and the right
kinds of solutions to integrateback?
So that's good news, which isboth again from a top line,
(30:16):
right kinds of growth, but alsofrom an efficiency measure.
It can help them and definitelysomething that they can
continue to build on.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
That's great and I'm going to call you back.
Can you define IoT and then saya little bit about how people
use that?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yes, and thank you for asking about that, and I
should have mentioned earlier.
So, internet of Things.
Actually, 10 years ago, when Istarted in the space of IoT, it
was called machine to machine,so some of them, some of you may
know it as machine to machine,but it's really Internet of
Things and what this is istaking any device that's out
there and connecting it back soit could be your watch.
(30:55):
It's an IoT device, but it'salso sensors or asset trackers,
so you've got something which isa heavy equipment and you want
to track it, what I called outwith VZ Connect.
That is a perfect example of anInternet of Things.
It's connected back into theInternet and what we can do is,
say, a company has a warehouse.
(31:16):
How do you tag every asset inthat warehouse and make sure
that you know the whereabouts ofthat, what's going on a pallet
and where is that palletcurrently if you need to go
track it.
That's a perfect example froman asset tracking perspective.
Utility companies are lookingat IoT to make sure every meter
is connected back into theirmain system, so we've got
(31:40):
connectivity there.
The good news on each one ofthese is they need to connect
back into the mothership, andthat's where Verizon comes in in
a big way.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And one of the real benefits of being able to
connect that is to be able topredict in advance when machines
are going to break down, sothat if you know that a machine
is likely to break down nextweek, you can do maintenance on
it this week and then have itnot break down.
So you should be able to seesuperior performance, and that
(32:10):
is both on the business side andon the consumer side.
That is so well said, so itactually it has a tremendous
predictive analytics, combinedwith IoT, is the game changer.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, predictive fault tolerance and predictive
analysis Analytics is a hugedeal and definitely one of the
big mainstays of IoT, I agree.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
So it has been a complete delight to talk to you
today.
Is there anything else that youwould like to add to our
podcast audience, as we talkabout SMB and, you know, the
market going forward?
Is there anything that we'vemissed in our conversation?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
No, I think this was a great conversation.
The one thing I would add is,sometimes, as we're talking to
these businesses who may not bedigitally savvy as yet, or who
may be digitally native butdon't know where to go next, who
may be in the early stages andtrying to figure out how is it
that they scale All that Irequest them to do is just stop
(33:13):
by in one of the Verizon stores,go to our website, get a tech
check with us.
It doesn't cost you anything,but we are help you because we
want to make sure we're buildingthe US economy in a way that
one SMB is being built and wewant to be there to as their
trusted partners eat SMB, one ata time, no matter what shape
(33:37):
and size, no matter what, whatindustry they're coming in with
construction or retail orservice we're here to help them
work.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
And I think you also mentioned the training and
support you have to help themactually in the running of their
businesses, not just in how doyou sell more Verizon product,
but you can actually help thesebusinesses succeed overall.
Thank you, that seems to besomething that's something that
some of the smaller businessesparticularly might really want
to take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, so Verizon Digital Ready platform.
You don't even have to be aVerizon customer to do this.
You can get on their website,get on our website there on the
Digital Ready platform.
That are a whole bunch ofpodcasts, training materials how
you manage your financials, howyou go look for aid.
We also have our own aid thatwe provide in terms of dollars.
(34:28):
We also have some pro bono workthat we do for legal support.
We can connect you with rightmentors in the industry as well.
So go check us out, becausewe're here again to help the
small medium businesses grow.
They're the backbone of the USeconomy and we want to see that
backbone get stronger andstronger and stronger.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
That's a perfect way to end the conversation today.
Thank you so much for your time.
Just to remind everyone, thispodcast is brought to you by
RetailWire.
You can find us atretailwirecom, where we try to
bring to you the latest thinkingin retail, from supply chain to
products, to pricing, toanalytics, to artificial
(35:11):
intelligence.
We try to be on the cuttingedge and provide that as a
service to people who arelearning more about retail every
day, because it is constantlychanging every day.
So thank you very much and Iwish everyone a great day.
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