November 11, 2025 • 23 mins
Tim, Tom, and Oriana sit down with Monica Filak, Director of Customer Success at Nexthink, to explore what it really takes to turn DEX from a tool into a transformative methodology. Monica shares how her team helps organizations move beyond technology to rethink their people, processes, and communication — bridging the long-standing divide between IT and the business. From creative internal branding to AI-driven efficiency gains, she explains how companies can evolve from “shiny tool” thinking to achieving measurable, human-centered value.Â
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hello, change Makers, welcome back to the Deck Show. Show
within a show within a show. We will never run
out of fantastic Next thinkers to talk to. Today, we
welcome for the first time Director of Customer Success Monica Felak.
How are you, Monica, Welcome to the show for the
as I say, for your debut guest on Reality Bides.
(00:31):
I'm very happy.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
To have you.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Okay, I should also mention I often forget this when
I'm introducing, but you know it is the Reality Bites
panel in miniature. Today we have may man, Tim Flower,
and we have Oriana as well. Hello to you both
and Monica, and they have questions for you. I have
questions for you, but to begin with, maybe if you
start with a short introduction for our audience about your
(00:57):
role and responsibilities at Next Think and in the Deck
sector more broadly.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Sure, so, I'm the leader for our Next Thing customer
success team here in North America. In short, my customer
success managers lead and guide our customers through their journey
with Next Thing. Really to just ensure that they're achieving
their strategic objectives and realizing value in the way that
matters most of them.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Souper up, and you've been a Next thinker for about
a year now. How has the experience shaped your understanding
of DECKS and how has that differed a little bit
from say, your expectations going into the role.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, I actually really liked this question. The concept of
DEX for me was well understood coming into Next Thing.
Quite frankly, it's what led me here. I feel that
it's the right time for companies to be thinking about
how their technology investment is actually impacting their organization and
understanding the reality of the results that it's driving for
(01:58):
them or not. But when I got into Next Thing,
I had previously seen decks as a tool, and I
learned that it's something much more than that. It's not
something that you buy and execute like so many enterprise
technologies that you buy and execute. The reality is that
it's an entire methodology. There's a whole process that goes
(02:19):
beyond just the technology, and this is what really drives
the reshaping of an organization and true transformative success.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So, Manica, you and I actually have something in common.
When I came over ten years ago. One of the
hats that I wore of the many. It's why I
don't have much hair left. I kept swopping hats around
was as a director of customer success for North America.
So it's awesome to have you here carrying that mantle forward.
One of the things as a customer we knew early
on was we didn't want to just buy the shiny tool.
(02:50):
We wanted to operationalize and get the most out of it.
So dig a little deeper into that concept of DEX
as a methodology. Gartner has said that dex is a
technology category and they kind of categorize us by vendors
who have tools. But go a little deeper into where
you kind of how you think about decks as a
(03:11):
methodology and talk a bit about where most organizations fall
a bit short when they try to put it into practice.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, so you know, for decades it has served the
needs of the business. And to really oversimplify this for
a second, it will look across the market at the
tools that they may need to best achieve their aim.
So for many customers, I find that they at first
look at decks in this way they need a technology
that can give them insight into their organization. They need
(03:42):
visibility that they can take action against, and so they
look as they're looking to buy many other applications. But
our most successful and most strategic customers really understand that
there's more. Next thing is an entire methodology that's focused
around five pillars. You do have the technology component, of course,
that's important, but there's also the people who within your
(04:03):
organization do you need to engage and be involved with
How are you thinking about this in terms of how
you're organized, How does it impact the way that you're structured.
What processes need to be created or modified in order
to take effective action against these insights that you've gained
with all of your visibility. Now, how are you communicating
these changes to your org? This is one that many
(04:26):
customers don't necessarily think of, but the way that you're
driving awareness can drive adoption and change can be hard
for organizations. So you really need to think this through
in a thoughtful manner. And then when thinking about value,
what metrics are valuable to you and to your leadership.
Some is cost reduction, perhaps through software reclamation. For others
(04:49):
it's ticket avoidance and so on and so forth. So
where do you want to focus? So my team works
with customers around this entire methodology really to help refocus
their thinking to create a solution that makes the most
sense for them. So it does differ by customer, and
does differ by industry, by size of company, and more
so we really work one on one with them, and
(05:12):
that's what my team helps with.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, it really is the combination of the concepts of
dex and dex ops right operationalizing the capabilities to get
the most out of them. When I was a customer
and even after coming over here and helping customers put
together plans, we talked a lot about the art of
the possible. We transition then from that art into calling
(05:37):
it this is our inspirational goal, this is it. It
kind of kept us flexible and saying it's inspirational. It
was a little bit of a cop out at the
time too, because it avoided making a commitment. We just said, well,
we're inspired to get here, but we're not going to
quite commit to it. Where do you see some of
the biggest gaps between people setting a vision of what
(05:58):
they want to do and the reac of what they
actually can do and what they can accomplish in most places.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, well, like I said, so many of our customers
are so different. So I already mentioned those that come
in thinking this is a tool and a plug in
play solution. We work through them with that methodology, so
their vision in reality is quite vast. Sometimes our customers
have a clear vision, they know what they want to do,
but they're just not sure how to do it necessarily,
(06:29):
So they may or may not know the big strategic goals.
We really help them break that down into smaller parts.
Which ones do you prioritize first, second, and third? So
we can help here by leading with early wins that
drive the most value or processes that would be easiest
to adopt for them based on how they're already structured today. Well,
(06:50):
we look at the typical IT organization. You know, it's
been structured kind of in the same way for a
really long time, and the way that technologies are purchased
hasn't changed that much over time. How they score their
applications is one good example. Tracking up time is kind
of the same. But we uh, and next thing, we
we challenged a lot of these status quo assumptions, and
(07:14):
we challenge our customers to think differently and to rethink
their organ their organizational structure. We're tracking across various applications,
so we're not looking at the individual level, how is
A doing, B doing C doing? But really, as a
holistic UH solution, how is your entire organization doing and
meeting the needs of your business? So we have a
(07:38):
lot to unpack with our customers, but I would say
in short, their vision coming in is often oversimplified and
is often missing the bigger component of the full methodology
aligning with their organization and communication and people and processes
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I found over the years is it's very easy for
IT to sit down and say we're going to put
together on IT strategy and focus only on IT. Here's
where we need to contain our costs, Here's where we
need more IT capabilities, here's how we're going to develop
people to take on AI. And it becomes very IT
centric and bringing that IT strategy and connectivity with business
(08:25):
strategy and bringing those kind of in harmony, if you will.
It's easier said than done because there's different goals, there's
different realities, there's even different knowledge and different terminologies. What
have you learned along the way about making the alignment
with IT strategy and business strategy more real and where
(08:47):
does DEX play in that and bridge in that gap.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
You know, I've been working to bridge the gap between
IT and business my entire career. And when you said
it's easier said than done, this is an understand for sure.
I think many times the two groups IT and the
business can be so divorced, and it's often because there's
kind of an US versus them mentality. The requests of
the business can make life and IT harder and sometimes
(09:15):
more challenging. The asks keep building, and then the rollout
for it can sometimes be an impediment to how the
business is doing things today, and change can be disrupted
to them. But what I love about decks is the
beauty of the foundation is the goal is making employees'
lives easier and better and really making them better able
to do the jobs that they were hired to do,
(09:37):
spending less time feeling frustrated or confused, in some cases
helpless because of the technology that's standing in their way.
And the next thing, our product really unlocks that real potential.
So once implemented, there's so much that happens in the
background that the issues that used to prevent the business
from doing what they needed to do just go away,
(10:00):
and the issues they were struggling with, well, they realize, gosh,
I haven't struggled with that in a few months.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
My day's gotten easier, it's gotten better. I can now
focus on my job and not trying to fix stuff
that I don't know how to fix. So if this
change is communicated in the right way within the organization,
and that organization understands why this is happening, why things
have gotten better it's because of the efforts of the
IT department, then for them it becomes the hero. And
(10:29):
I love that. I love seeing our customers package up
the success that they've had and broadcasts that broadly through
the organizations and really bringing those two groups together. So
now they're working together to help each other to make
things better, not seen as two disparate entities.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So let's bring it all together. Then let's talk about
actual accomplishments. What are some examples anonymized if you need
to use names where you can, but about what some
customers have actually where they've actually succeeded.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Sure, so I can start more broadly and then get
more specific, but really a lot of our customers have
used a lot of the same types of use cases
that have really helped, so license reclamation, decommissioning old hardware.
Those have direct impacted the business from a financial perspective,
(11:27):
but maybe not from an experience. But there are use
cases like security upgrade updates or application upgrades. So in
these cases, in the middle of the workdat these often
pop up at the worst times and disrupts the flow
of the users doing what they're doing. So customers can
(11:48):
use our solution to alert the user to update when
they want, when time permits, and schedule it at their convenience.
So campaigns are really a popular way to get quick
and easy feedback from the business. It's done in a
non intrusive way and in some cases have done correctly,
can be even fun. These are typical use cases, but
(12:09):
thinking outside the box a bit, We have one customer
whose businesses their resources, their people, their business members travel
all over the world meeting with customers and doing the
work that they do, and it was really important to
them that their resources are able to stay connected and
have a strong Wi Fi signal when they're traveling, so
(12:30):
they used our product to map out the Wi Fi
reliability of hotels around the world, so that when their
executives are booking travel, the Wi Fi strength and reliability
was a feature that was an input into deciding where
to stay. So that's one example that's a little different
than most that did have a very positive and immediate
impact on the business.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Manica.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
One of the things that you mentioned that I absolutely
loved is this sort of importance of communication and the
complexity of process, but also the opportunity for it to
really be the hero of the story. So I'm wondering
if you can talk a little bit about how companies
are trying to get those messages out more effectively, right, Like,
(13:12):
are you seeing growth in internal branding around decks or
more proactive IT engagement? How do companies communicate successful dex implementations.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I love the idea of internal branding if it fits
the culture of the company, branding can really be an
important way to drive awareness and adoption of our tools.
So my success managers will work with customers to share
ideas and best practices that we've gained from others on
the best ways to implement this, and then how to
identify the right process that fits the culture of their organization,
(13:47):
that piece is really important. One example of this is
a customer really took this to heart and branded their
next Think instance in its entirety. There's a logo associated
with it. They had lots of fun marketing and those
are widely distributed throughout the company to help drive awareness.
So the result is that when someone in the HR
(14:08):
department or the sales team is having you know, working
on their computer and then there's a little pop up
and they see that logo, they know, oh, I know
this is here to help me. Let me click on this.
And it's been really well received and has been a
great adoption driver within their company. So for many customers,
we advised, you know, let's explore this, let's see what works.
(14:30):
Other cultures might not be right for a sticker and
a fun logo, but we can do something that really
helps to communicate what this changes and to communicate why
it's important that others within the business lean in.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So I'm going to step in again, Monica and just
ask them if you think there can sometimes be a
tension between what it teams know is going to have
the biggest impact and what they want to deliver, and
if so, how do you navigate that and where does
that tension come from.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yes, we see this tension often, and I wouldn't call
it tensions so much as getting distracted by what I
call the shiny things. So our tool can do lots
of really cool things. And once a company signs with
Netsthink and we have the executive buy in and we
understand what they're trying to achieve, once the work starts,
(15:26):
it's really easy to get distracted. So there are what
we're finding is the teams often don't realize all the
cool stuff that it can do. They become excited by it.
They say, all these issues or items that we're making
my job tricky before I can solve for them, and
this is left un checks.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You can.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Really it's like a runaway train in a good way,
because we're still building things that matter and make a difference,
but it might not be the big wins or meeting
the strategic objectives of the organization. So it's the job
of my team to make sure that we're prioritizing the
new of the business and ensuring that those strategic objectives
are met, and that the reason that the customer bought
(16:06):
in the first place, that we're achieving those aims, so
we're able to show value to the leadership in a
timely marrior, which is what we want. So we work
alongside our customer teams to make sure that the right
use cases are prioritized. First, we have benchmark data and
guidance that's built from doing this with customers all over
the world, and we can really guide them on quick
(16:29):
wins and those high value use cases. Our goal is
to build the plan that meets their needs, that prioritizes
thos high value cases, surfacing use cases they might not
have considered. We help them track progress too along the way,
and then we also do make sure they have time
to build the other cool stuff because that's fun too.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Indeed it is. And just hearkening back to your mention
of internal branding initiatives, I haven't maybe told the story
on the pod before, but not for not for a while,
not for a couple of hundred episodes or say, you know,
but there was a French insurance customer of ours and
(17:11):
I got to speak to somebody there and an experience
of them many years ago, and he told me that
they'd they branded their proactive capability of the organization as
pre cogs using the terminology from Minority Report, you know,
the movie where they have the psychics being able to
(17:31):
tell who's who's about to commit crime and stuff. That
was definitely the most creative and enjoyable branding I'd come across.
But using that as a sort of a platform to
step into the future a moment Monika. Obviously, as AI
is becoming more embedded index, how are you seeing on
(17:52):
the ground teams adapt or begin to adapt or plan
to adapt, both technically but also culturally. And what's the
mood like among the IT professionals you're working with when
it comes to embracing AI into their data or integrating
AI into their daily workflows.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Yeah. I think at first when AI was coming onto
the market, there was a fear. There was this misnomer
that AI will take all of our jobs. But as
you know, AI has no conscience. It's very good at
sifting through large amounts of data and reporting back on
trends and insights based on the data that it has,
(18:29):
but it can't be creative, it can't be deeply insightful
in the way these humans can. Just a really, really
efficient tool that helps to address what I call noise
in any job, and I think that a lot of
IT professionals are seeing this. So if we take one
example of the support desk, you know, a typical day
(18:50):
and a support desk, someone's having a problem. They submit
a ticket. The support team gets that ticket, it says
System A doesn't work. Now this could be true, it
could be System ADE doesn't work, or it could be
a symptom of a real problem with System B. It's
hard for the agent to really know, so they spend
a lot of time digging around, investigating, doing research. This
(19:10):
can take a long time. Then they finally troubleshoot with
a person, they eventually come to a resolution, and then
they move on to the next ticket. Ticket says system
MADE isn't working, and it just continues on and on.
So what our customers are doing is embracing AI in
this way to reduce that noise, to remove the tedious
burden from in this case, a support desk. We can
(19:33):
report on these large scale issues, we can offer suggestions
real time for faster resolutions, and so on and so
on and so on. And what our customers are seeing
is in this example they're able to put off the
noise and allow their resources to actually focus on strategic
items that they may not have had time to get
to in a normal day. I have one customer that
(19:57):
signed about six or seven months ago really just got
it and he came in and I'm so excited to
work with these customers because they come and they have
the vision, they understand DEX as a whole methodology, they
have a strategy, and he wanted to go in with
his organization and say, reimagine your day at the support
desk as a way to drive adoption. And it was
(20:18):
really highlighting all the ways that AI can help make
their day easier, to help reduce that noise and unlock
their potential so that as people and as employees, they
can not be troubleshooting system a system a system ay
all day. They can actually be focusing on some really
strategic initiatives, in this case, upskilling his service desk agents,
(20:41):
getting them better prepared to handle L two and L
three tickets, allowing them all to think a little bit
more broadly, and his whole organization's benefiting as a result.
So I think that as others are really seeing the
potential of AI and kind of letting go of those
early fears, I mean, I think success can be limitless. Yes,
(21:01):
and it's really exciting.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
That is super exciting. I'm curious to know what you
think comes after that, right, So when these teams re
imagine it with these new tools, do you think that's
going to change what DEX looks like when AI is
more standard in organizations toolkits?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Absolutely? I mean I think that it's not just AI,
but it's decks as a whole. So when we're talking
specifically about AI, there's you know, as I said, the
real opportunity to reduce the noise of what any employee
is working with the day to day so that they
can spend more time doing more strategic things. But as
(21:40):
you said, DEX isn't just within the IT department, and
we're working more so with the business bridging that gap
to make the business's life easier. So be it, you know,
how do we engage in new applications? You know, we
have a great product that allows you know, really walks
a salesperson or an HR person or or some other
(22:00):
person within the organization through some of our technical applications
so that they're better able to do their job. I
think with AI, we can just automate that and make
that more intuitive and easier, and if it's not happening
in the background, then at least it can really tee
up the answer for someone. So instead of trying to
think through what is it that I need to do,
(22:21):
they're really just saying, oh, do I need to do
A or B? Yes or no. It becomes very simple
and the end of the day is faster, so that
they're able to keep going and keep moving and not
being weighed down by questions or uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Phenomenal And I'm so glad We've had a bit of
technical difficulties listening today, principally afflicting Orihana, one of our
most valued panelists. So Orian has been in and out,
but we did manage to get I think to two
of my account's superb questions from Orihana. I'm very glad
we could, Monika, and I'm very very glad you were
(22:59):
able to join us today for the first time. You
have to be a returning guest maybe in twenty twenty six,
which is really around the corner now, isn't it. It's
really almost upon us, but a great pleasure to have
you on. Thanks so much for making the time.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Thanks Mama to make sure that you never miss an episode.
Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your
favorite podcast player, and if you're listening on Apple podcasts,
make sure to leave a rating of the show. Just
tap the number of stars you think the podcast deserves.
If you'd like to learn more about how next Thing
can help me improve your digital employee experience, head over
(23:36):
to nextthink dot com.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Until next time.
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hello, change Makers, welcome back to the Deck Show. Show
within a show within a show. We will never run
out of fantastic Next thinkers to talk to. Today, we
welcome for the first time Director of Customer Success Monica Felak.
How are you, Monica, Welcome to the show for the
as I say, for your debut guest on Reality Bides.
(00:31):
I'm very happy.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
To have you.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Okay, I should also mention I often forget this when
I'm introducing, but you know it is the Reality Bites
panel in miniature. Today we have may man, Tim Flower,
and we have Oriana as well. Hello to you both
and Monica, and they have questions for you. I have
questions for you, but to begin with, maybe if you
start with a short introduction for our audience about your
(00:57):
role and responsibilities at Next Think and in the Deck
sector more broadly.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Sure, so, I'm the leader for our Next Thing customer
success team here in North America. In short, my customer
success managers lead and guide our customers through their journey
with Next Thing. Really to just ensure that they're achieving
their strategic objectives and realizing value in the way that
matters most of them.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Souper up, and you've been a Next thinker for about
a year now. How has the experience shaped your understanding
of DECKS and how has that differed a little bit
from say, your expectations going into the role.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, I actually really liked this question. The concept of
DEX for me was well understood coming into Next Thing.
Quite frankly, it's what led me here. I feel that
it's the right time for companies to be thinking about
how their technology investment is actually impacting their organization and
understanding the reality of the results that it's driving for
(01:58):
them or not. But when I got into Next Thing,
I had previously seen decks as a tool, and I
learned that it's something much more than that. It's not
something that you buy and execute like so many enterprise
technologies that you buy and execute. The reality is that
it's an entire methodology. There's a whole process that goes
(02:19):
beyond just the technology, and this is what really drives
the reshaping of an organization and true transformative success.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So, Manica, you and I actually have something in common.
When I came over ten years ago. One of the
hats that I wore of the many. It's why I
don't have much hair left. I kept swopping hats around
was as a director of customer success for North America.
So it's awesome to have you here carrying that mantle forward.
One of the things as a customer we knew early
on was we didn't want to just buy the shiny tool.
(02:50):
We wanted to operationalize and get the most out of it.
So dig a little deeper into that concept of DEX
as a methodology. Gartner has said that dex is a
technology category and they kind of categorize us by vendors
who have tools. But go a little deeper into where
you kind of how you think about decks as a
(03:11):
methodology and talk a bit about where most organizations fall
a bit short when they try to put it into practice.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, so you know, for decades it has served the
needs of the business. And to really oversimplify this for
a second, it will look across the market at the
tools that they may need to best achieve their aim.
So for many customers, I find that they at first
look at decks in this way they need a technology
that can give them insight into their organization. They need
(03:42):
visibility that they can take action against, and so they
look as they're looking to buy many other applications. But
our most successful and most strategic customers really understand that
there's more. Next thing is an entire methodology that's focused
around five pillars. You do have the technology component, of course,
that's important, but there's also the people who within your
(04:03):
organization do you need to engage and be involved with
How are you thinking about this in terms of how
you're organized, How does it impact the way that you're structured.
What processes need to be created or modified in order
to take effective action against these insights that you've gained
with all of your visibility. Now, how are you communicating
these changes to your org? This is one that many
(04:26):
customers don't necessarily think of, but the way that you're
driving awareness can drive adoption and change can be hard
for organizations. So you really need to think this through
in a thoughtful manner. And then when thinking about value,
what metrics are valuable to you and to your leadership.
Some is cost reduction, perhaps through software reclamation. For others
(04:49):
it's ticket avoidance and so on and so forth. So
where do you want to focus? So my team works
with customers around this entire methodology really to help refocus
their thinking to create a solution that makes the most
sense for them. So it does differ by customer, and
does differ by industry, by size of company, and more
so we really work one on one with them, and
(05:12):
that's what my team helps with.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, it really is the combination of the concepts of
dex and dex ops right operationalizing the capabilities to get
the most out of them. When I was a customer
and even after coming over here and helping customers put
together plans, we talked a lot about the art of
the possible. We transition then from that art into calling
(05:37):
it this is our inspirational goal, this is it. It
kind of kept us flexible and saying it's inspirational. It
was a little bit of a cop out at the
time too, because it avoided making a commitment. We just said, well,
we're inspired to get here, but we're not going to
quite commit to it. Where do you see some of
the biggest gaps between people setting a vision of what
(05:58):
they want to do and the reac of what they
actually can do and what they can accomplish in most places.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, well, like I said, so many of our customers
are so different. So I already mentioned those that come
in thinking this is a tool and a plug in
play solution. We work through them with that methodology, so
their vision in reality is quite vast. Sometimes our customers
have a clear vision, they know what they want to do,
but they're just not sure how to do it necessarily,
(06:29):
So they may or may not know the big strategic goals.
We really help them break that down into smaller parts.
Which ones do you prioritize first, second, and third? So
we can help here by leading with early wins that
drive the most value or processes that would be easiest
to adopt for them based on how they're already structured today. Well,
(06:50):
we look at the typical IT organization. You know, it's
been structured kind of in the same way for a
really long time, and the way that technologies are purchased
hasn't changed that much over time. How they score their
applications is one good example. Tracking up time is kind
of the same. But we uh, and next thing, we
we challenged a lot of these status quo assumptions, and
(07:14):
we challenge our customers to think differently and to rethink
their organ their organizational structure. We're tracking across various applications,
so we're not looking at the individual level, how is
A doing, B doing C doing? But really, as a
holistic UH solution, how is your entire organization doing and
meeting the needs of your business? So we have a
(07:38):
lot to unpack with our customers, but I would say
in short, their vision coming in is often oversimplified and
is often missing the bigger component of the full methodology
aligning with their organization and communication and people and processes
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I found over the years is it's very easy for
IT to sit down and say we're going to put
together on IT strategy and focus only on IT. Here's
where we need to contain our costs, Here's where we
need more IT capabilities, here's how we're going to develop
people to take on AI. And it becomes very IT
centric and bringing that IT strategy and connectivity with business
(08:25):
strategy and bringing those kind of in harmony, if you will.
It's easier said than done because there's different goals, there's
different realities, there's even different knowledge and different terminologies. What
have you learned along the way about making the alignment
with IT strategy and business strategy more real and where
(08:47):
does DEX play in that and bridge in that gap.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
You know, I've been working to bridge the gap between
IT and business my entire career. And when you said
it's easier said than done, this is an understand for sure.
I think many times the two groups IT and the
business can be so divorced, and it's often because there's
kind of an US versus them mentality. The requests of
the business can make life and IT harder and sometimes
(09:15):
more challenging. The asks keep building, and then the rollout
for it can sometimes be an impediment to how the
business is doing things today, and change can be disrupted
to them. But what I love about decks is the
beauty of the foundation is the goal is making employees'
lives easier and better and really making them better able
to do the jobs that they were hired to do,
(09:37):
spending less time feeling frustrated or confused, in some cases
helpless because of the technology that's standing in their way.
And the next thing, our product really unlocks that real potential.
So once implemented, there's so much that happens in the
background that the issues that used to prevent the business
from doing what they needed to do just go away,
(10:00):
and the issues they were struggling with, well, they realize, gosh,
I haven't struggled with that in a few months.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
My day's gotten easier, it's gotten better. I can now
focus on my job and not trying to fix stuff
that I don't know how to fix. So if this
change is communicated in the right way within the organization,
and that organization understands why this is happening, why things
have gotten better it's because of the efforts of the
IT department, then for them it becomes the hero. And
(10:29):
I love that. I love seeing our customers package up
the success that they've had and broadcasts that broadly through
the organizations and really bringing those two groups together. So
now they're working together to help each other to make
things better, not seen as two disparate entities.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So let's bring it all together. Then let's talk about
actual accomplishments. What are some examples anonymized if you need
to use names where you can, but about what some
customers have actually where they've actually succeeded.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Sure, so I can start more broadly and then get
more specific, but really a lot of our customers have
used a lot of the same types of use cases
that have really helped, so license reclamation, decommissioning old hardware.
Those have direct impacted the business from a financial perspective,
(11:27):
but maybe not from an experience. But there are use
cases like security upgrade updates or application upgrades. So in
these cases, in the middle of the workdat these often
pop up at the worst times and disrupts the flow
of the users doing what they're doing. So customers can
(11:48):
use our solution to alert the user to update when
they want, when time permits, and schedule it at their convenience.
So campaigns are really a popular way to get quick
and easy feedback from the business. It's done in a
non intrusive way and in some cases have done correctly,
can be even fun. These are typical use cases, but
(12:09):
thinking outside the box a bit, We have one customer
whose businesses their resources, their people, their business members travel
all over the world meeting with customers and doing the
work that they do, and it was really important to
them that their resources are able to stay connected and
have a strong Wi Fi signal when they're traveling, so
(12:30):
they used our product to map out the Wi Fi
reliability of hotels around the world, so that when their
executives are booking travel, the Wi Fi strength and reliability
was a feature that was an input into deciding where
to stay. So that's one example that's a little different
than most that did have a very positive and immediate
impact on the business.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Manica.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
One of the things that you mentioned that I absolutely
loved is this sort of importance of communication and the
complexity of process, but also the opportunity for it to
really be the hero of the story. So I'm wondering
if you can talk a little bit about how companies
are trying to get those messages out more effectively, right, Like,
(13:12):
are you seeing growth in internal branding around decks or
more proactive IT engagement? How do companies communicate successful dex implementations.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I love the idea of internal branding if it fits
the culture of the company, branding can really be an
important way to drive awareness and adoption of our tools.
So my success managers will work with customers to share
ideas and best practices that we've gained from others on
the best ways to implement this, and then how to
identify the right process that fits the culture of their organization,
(13:47):
that piece is really important. One example of this is
a customer really took this to heart and branded their
next Think instance in its entirety. There's a logo associated
with it. They had lots of fun marketing and those
are widely distributed throughout the company to help drive awareness.
So the result is that when someone in the HR
(14:08):
department or the sales team is having you know, working
on their computer and then there's a little pop up
and they see that logo, they know, oh, I know
this is here to help me. Let me click on this.
And it's been really well received and has been a
great adoption driver within their company. So for many customers,
we advised, you know, let's explore this, let's see what works.
(14:30):
Other cultures might not be right for a sticker and
a fun logo, but we can do something that really
helps to communicate what this changes and to communicate why
it's important that others within the business lean in.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So I'm going to step in again, Monica and just
ask them if you think there can sometimes be a
tension between what it teams know is going to have
the biggest impact and what they want to deliver, and
if so, how do you navigate that and where does
that tension come from.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yes, we see this tension often, and I wouldn't call
it tensions so much as getting distracted by what I
call the shiny things. So our tool can do lots
of really cool things. And once a company signs with
Netsthink and we have the executive buy in and we
understand what they're trying to achieve, once the work starts,
(15:26):
it's really easy to get distracted. So there are what
we're finding is the teams often don't realize all the
cool stuff that it can do. They become excited by it.
They say, all these issues or items that we're making
my job tricky before I can solve for them, and
this is left un checks.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
You can.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Really it's like a runaway train in a good way,
because we're still building things that matter and make a difference,
but it might not be the big wins or meeting
the strategic objectives of the organization. So it's the job
of my team to make sure that we're prioritizing the
new of the business and ensuring that those strategic objectives
are met, and that the reason that the customer bought
(16:06):
in the first place, that we're achieving those aims, so
we're able to show value to the leadership in a
timely marrior, which is what we want. So we work
alongside our customer teams to make sure that the right
use cases are prioritized. First, we have benchmark data and
guidance that's built from doing this with customers all over
the world, and we can really guide them on quick
(16:29):
wins and those high value use cases. Our goal is
to build the plan that meets their needs, that prioritizes
thos high value cases, surfacing use cases they might not
have considered. We help them track progress too along the way,
and then we also do make sure they have time
to build the other cool stuff because that's fun too.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Indeed it is. And just hearkening back to your mention
of internal branding initiatives, I haven't maybe told the story
on the pod before, but not for not for a while,
not for a couple of hundred episodes or say, you know,
but there was a French insurance customer of ours and
(17:11):
I got to speak to somebody there and an experience
of them many years ago, and he told me that
they'd they branded their proactive capability of the organization as
pre cogs using the terminology from Minority Report, you know,
the movie where they have the psychics being able to
(17:31):
tell who's who's about to commit crime and stuff. That
was definitely the most creative and enjoyable branding I'd come across.
But using that as a sort of a platform to
step into the future a moment Monika. Obviously, as AI
is becoming more embedded index, how are you seeing on
(17:52):
the ground teams adapt or begin to adapt or plan
to adapt, both technically but also culturally. And what's the
mood like among the IT professionals you're working with when
it comes to embracing AI into their data or integrating
AI into their daily workflows.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Yeah. I think at first when AI was coming onto
the market, there was a fear. There was this misnomer
that AI will take all of our jobs. But as
you know, AI has no conscience. It's very good at
sifting through large amounts of data and reporting back on
trends and insights based on the data that it has,
(18:29):
but it can't be creative, it can't be deeply insightful
in the way these humans can. Just a really, really
efficient tool that helps to address what I call noise
in any job, and I think that a lot of
IT professionals are seeing this. So if we take one
example of the support desk, you know, a typical day
(18:50):
and a support desk, someone's having a problem. They submit
a ticket. The support team gets that ticket, it says
System A doesn't work. Now this could be true, it
could be System ADE doesn't work, or it could be
a symptom of a real problem with System B. It's
hard for the agent to really know, so they spend
a lot of time digging around, investigating, doing research. This
(19:10):
can take a long time. Then they finally troubleshoot with
a person, they eventually come to a resolution, and then
they move on to the next ticket. Ticket says system
MADE isn't working, and it just continues on and on.
So what our customers are doing is embracing AI in
this way to reduce that noise, to remove the tedious
burden from in this case, a support desk. We can
(19:33):
report on these large scale issues, we can offer suggestions
real time for faster resolutions, and so on and so
on and so on. And what our customers are seeing
is in this example they're able to put off the
noise and allow their resources to actually focus on strategic
items that they may not have had time to get
to in a normal day. I have one customer that
(19:57):
signed about six or seven months ago really just got
it and he came in and I'm so excited to
work with these customers because they come and they have
the vision, they understand DEX as a whole methodology, they
have a strategy, and he wanted to go in with
his organization and say, reimagine your day at the support
desk as a way to drive adoption. And it was
(20:18):
really highlighting all the ways that AI can help make
their day easier, to help reduce that noise and unlock
their potential so that as people and as employees, they
can not be troubleshooting system a system a system ay
all day. They can actually be focusing on some really
strategic initiatives, in this case, upskilling his service desk agents,
(20:41):
getting them better prepared to handle L two and L
three tickets, allowing them all to think a little bit
more broadly, and his whole organization's benefiting as a result.
So I think that as others are really seeing the
potential of AI and kind of letting go of those
early fears, I mean, I think success can be limitless. Yes,
(21:01):
and it's really exciting.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
That is super exciting. I'm curious to know what you
think comes after that, right, So when these teams re
imagine it with these new tools, do you think that's
going to change what DEX looks like when AI is
more standard in organizations toolkits?
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Absolutely? I mean I think that it's not just AI,
but it's decks as a whole. So when we're talking
specifically about AI, there's you know, as I said, the
real opportunity to reduce the noise of what any employee
is working with the day to day so that they
can spend more time doing more strategic things. But as
(21:40):
you said, DEX isn't just within the IT department, and
we're working more so with the business bridging that gap
to make the business's life easier. So be it, you know,
how do we engage in new applications? You know, we
have a great product that allows you know, really walks
a salesperson or an HR person or or some other
(22:00):
person within the organization through some of our technical applications
so that they're better able to do their job. I
think with AI, we can just automate that and make
that more intuitive and easier, and if it's not happening
in the background, then at least it can really tee
up the answer for someone. So instead of trying to
think through what is it that I need to do,
(22:21):
they're really just saying, oh, do I need to do
A or B? Yes or no. It becomes very simple
and the end of the day is faster, so that
they're able to keep going and keep moving and not
being weighed down by questions or uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Phenomenal And I'm so glad We've had a bit of
technical difficulties listening today, principally afflicting Orihana, one of our
most valued panelists. So Orian has been in and out,
but we did manage to get I think to two
of my account's superb questions from Orihana. I'm very glad
we could, Monika, and I'm very very glad you were
(22:59):
able to join us today for the first time. You
have to be a returning guest maybe in twenty twenty six,
which is really around the corner now, isn't it. It's
really almost upon us, but a great pleasure to have
you on. Thanks so much for making the time.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Thanks Mama to make sure that you never miss an episode.
Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your
favorite podcast player, and if you're listening on Apple podcasts,
make sure to leave a rating of the show. Just
tap the number of stars you think the podcast deserves.
If you'd like to learn more about how next Thing
can help me improve your digital employee experience, head over
(23:36):
to nextthink dot com.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Until next time.
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