Devs on Tape x KSCOPE25 - EPM Insights and Aussie Adventures with Peter Nitschke

00:00:00: Speaker 1: This episode is powered by Hyatt, your

00:00:02: Speaker 1: smart companion for digital business

00:00:04: Speaker 1: solutions, and Biodetec's gracious

00:00:06: Speaker 1: invitations and support.

00:00:07: Speaker 1: Thank you for having me at the conference

00:00:09: Speaker 1: and fueling this journey.

00:00:10: Speaker 1: Let's go.

00:00:23: Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of

00:00:25: Speaker 1: Devs on Tape Today, again from Grapevine,

00:00:28: Speaker 1: texas.

00:00:28: Speaker 1: I'm very proud that I invited a guest today

00:00:32: Speaker 1: who talks about stuff I really don't know

00:00:34: Speaker 1: about, right, so I have to do it like a

00:00:37: Speaker 1: disclaimer, because we are talking about

00:00:39: Speaker 1: EPM besides other things.

00:00:41: Speaker 1: My guest today is Peter Nitschke.

00:00:44: Speaker 1: Did I pronounce that, right?

00:00:45: Speaker 1: That's very good.

00:00:46: Speaker 1: So thank you for accepting my invitation.

00:00:50: Speaker 1: Please introduce yourself to our audience.

00:00:53: Speaker 1: No, worries.

00:00:54: Speaker 3: So, peter Nitschke, I am the founder and

00:00:57: Speaker 3: director of Pivot2, based out of Australia.

00:01:00: Speaker 3: I go online as S-Base Down Under, which has

00:01:01: Speaker 3: been a name for a very, very long time.

00:01:01: Speaker 3: I go online as S-Base Down Under, which has

00:01:02: Speaker 3: been a name for a very, very long time

00:01:04: Speaker 3: Originally.

00:01:05: Speaker 3: Well, I've been, I suppose, in the EPM

00:01:07: Speaker 3: stack almost since the early 2000s, working

00:01:11: Speaker 3: before it was even Oracle and all of those

00:01:14: Speaker 3: kind of frameworks.

00:01:14: Speaker 3: So I really started in planning in S-Base.

00:01:17: Speaker 3: I've got a business analytics kind of

00:01:18: Speaker 3: economics background and then worked from

00:01:22: Speaker 3: there into consulting for my sins.

00:01:24: Speaker 3: I've been a consultant most of my career

00:01:26: Speaker 3: and then we started a company a couple of

00:01:27: Speaker 3: years ago, about five years ago, just

00:01:29: Speaker 3: before COVID.

00:01:30: Speaker 3: So we went fully remote very, very quickly.

00:01:41: Speaker 3: No-transcript, my love's still probably

00:01:46: Speaker 3: always planning.

00:01:46: Speaker 3: But you know, these days I kind of have to

00:01:48: Speaker 3: do some of the more accounting heavy things

00:01:49: Speaker 3: which my audit people in the team

00:01:50: Speaker 3: occasionally explain things to me and

00:01:51: Speaker 3: wonder why my eyes close over.

00:01:53: Speaker 3: But that's all right.

00:01:54: Speaker 3: I live in Australia, in Melbourne, sunny

00:01:56: Speaker 3: Melbourne, that's very funny for the

00:01:57: Speaker 3: Australians, but live out in the country.

00:02:00: Speaker 3: Now we did the COVID relocation that a lot

00:02:04: Speaker 3: of people in Australia did, particularly in

00:02:05: Speaker 3: Melbourne because we were locked down for

00:02:07: Speaker 3: about two years.

00:02:07: Speaker 3: So we actually moved out up to 20 acres up

00:02:10: Speaker 3: kind of northeast of the Melbourne in an

00:02:12: Speaker 3: area called Kangaroo Ground, and right now

00:02:14: Speaker 3: the biggest challenge that we're facing

00:02:16: Speaker 3: there is we've had a bit of a drought for

00:02:18: Speaker 3: about six months and we've got an

00:02:20: Speaker 3: infestation of wallabies that are coming

00:02:21: Speaker 3: and eating all the plants and my wife who

00:02:24: Speaker 3: works for the zoos Victoria, so very much

00:02:27: Speaker 3: likes animals is just trying to build

00:02:28: Speaker 3: bigger and bigger and bigger nets to try to

00:02:32: Speaker 3: stop them from from eating everything.

00:02:33: Speaker 3: So I get dragged into a lot of that over

00:02:34: Speaker 3: the weekends.

00:02:35: Speaker 1: I have kind of a deja vu, because I was

00:02:38: Speaker 1: talking to Conor McDonald, or we were

00:02:39: Speaker 1: talking to Conor McDonald back in the days,

00:02:42: Speaker 1: during the walk in Nuremberg, I guess, and

00:02:45: Speaker 1: he was talking about frogs the last time,

00:02:46: Speaker 1: right.

00:02:47: Speaker 1: So they said we had a problem with frogs.

00:02:49: Speaker 1: Is it kind of a thing of Australia to have

00:02:51: Speaker 1: problems with animals?

00:02:52: Speaker 3: invading the country.

00:02:54: Speaker 3: This is one of the things that everyone

00:02:56: Speaker 3: else in the rest of the world seems to have

00:02:57: Speaker 3: this, really, I suppose, vision of what

00:02:59: Speaker 3: animal and wildlife is in Australia.

00:03:00: Speaker 3: Everyone, just life is in Australia and

00:03:01: Speaker 3: everyone just assumes that everything's

00:03:02: Speaker 3: there to eat you and it's not.

00:03:05: Speaker 3: But I am doing a this is a teaser for you.

00:03:07: Speaker 3: It'll come out after the session but I'm

00:03:08: Speaker 3: doing a lightning talk on Thursday about

00:03:11: Speaker 3: you know a tier list of Australian animals

00:03:13: Speaker 3: and I've had to put like warnings in there

00:03:15: Speaker 3: about the snakes and the spiders and

00:03:16: Speaker 3: everything else that are in there.

00:03:17: Speaker 3: So, but yeah, no, I think it's a, it's a

00:03:19: Speaker 3: funny, it's a funny experience,

00:03:20: Speaker 3: particularly living in the country, because

00:03:23: Speaker 3: I talked to you know the americans or

00:03:24: Speaker 3: whatever, on teleconferences.

00:03:26: Speaker 3: They're like, oh, do you see kangaroos?

00:03:27: Speaker 3: I'm like, no, I live in a capital city.

00:03:29: Speaker 3: You know there's not.

00:03:30: Speaker 3: I mean I see kangaroos but I am not normal

00:03:32: Speaker 3: to the, to the rest of the you know the

00:03:34: Speaker 3: australian population.

00:03:35: Speaker 3: And then you know we get a scene where you

00:03:38: Speaker 3: know there's a kangaroo bouncing over

00:03:39: Speaker 3: sydney harbor bridge and everyone just

00:03:40: Speaker 3: starts laughing at us again so you know,

00:03:42: Speaker 3: swings around I mean australia.

00:03:44: Speaker 1: I I just recently realized that australia

00:03:47: Speaker 1: is way bigger than people think.

00:03:48: Speaker 1: Right, so you can even fly inside australia

00:03:51: Speaker 1: from one point to another and still a

00:03:53: Speaker 1: couple of hours.

00:03:54: Speaker 1: Right, so it's not an island, so, and even

00:03:57: Speaker 1: animals are not just like kangaroos

00:04:00: Speaker 1: everywhere.

00:04:00: Speaker 3: So this is maybe for someone outside it's

00:04:03: Speaker 3: so far away, it's, it's quite, quite a

00:04:05: Speaker 3: thing, yeah I lived in germany doing, went

00:04:07: Speaker 3: to university there for six months and I

00:04:10: Speaker 3: remember I could walk from germany to

00:04:12: Speaker 3: belgium and I'd walk across the border

00:04:14: Speaker 3: because the the supermarkets were open on

00:04:17: Speaker 3: sunday and they weren't open on sunday in

00:04:18: Speaker 3: germany, yeah, so if I ever needed food I

00:04:20: Speaker 3: could just walk across the border.

00:04:21: Speaker 3: And that always just made me laugh, because

00:04:23: Speaker 3: at the time I was living in Western

00:04:24: Speaker 3: Australia and in Western Australia you can

00:04:26: Speaker 3: drive for 10 hours and it will look exactly

00:04:29: Speaker 3: the same as when you started.

00:04:30: Speaker 3: It's just.

00:04:31: Speaker 3: It's very, very different.

00:04:32: Speaker 3: And I suppose I live in.

00:04:33: Speaker 3: I live in Melbourne, which is reasonably

00:04:34: Speaker 3: central, but the next capital city is a 10

00:04:37: Speaker 3: hour drive away and there's not a lot

00:04:39: Speaker 3: between those two places.

00:04:41: Speaker 3: You know, my other director lives three and

00:04:44: Speaker 3: a half hours away from where I live.

00:04:46: Speaker 1: So you're meeting in the middle when you

00:04:47: Speaker 1: have like in-person meetings Pretty much.

00:04:49: Speaker 3: Yeah, so like it's for our organization, as

00:04:52: Speaker 3: I said, we were kind of very remote, none

00:04:54: Speaker 3: of that during COVID and then we've kind of

00:04:56: Speaker 3: kept that going.

00:04:57: Speaker 3: So we have to.

00:04:59: Speaker 3: We have a kind of twice a year kind of

00:05:02: Speaker 3: catch up and we've got to kind of pick

00:05:03: Speaker 3: somewhere to fly, have a kind of twice a

00:05:04: Speaker 3: year kind of catch up and we've got to kind

00:05:05: Speaker 3: of pick somewhere to fly.

00:05:06: Speaker 3: And the last few times we've flown down to

00:05:07: Speaker 3: Melbourne, but we're saying next time we've

00:05:08: Speaker 3: got to fly somewhere that's sunny and warm

00:05:09: Speaker 3: and sit on a beach instead, cause there's

00:05:11: Speaker 3: plenty of those options as well, and if

00:05:12: Speaker 3: you're flying everyone anyway, you might as

00:05:14: Speaker 3: well, you know, go somewhere really lovely.

00:05:16: Speaker 1: So in Germany it's basically, if you drive

00:05:18: Speaker 1: from the South to North, it's not that big

00:05:21: Speaker 1: deal, right?

00:05:22: Speaker 1: So you can like I mean, you could drive 10

00:05:24: Speaker 1: hours, I guess.

00:05:25: Speaker 1: But it's in america, for example, it's just

00:05:27: Speaker 1: around the corner, I learned that is like

00:05:29: Speaker 1: two or three hours by car, right?

00:05:31: Speaker 1: So in germany we are planning vacations

00:05:33: Speaker 1: where we drive for five hours at most.

00:05:35: Speaker 3: Basically, yeah, it's interesting even just

00:05:37: Speaker 3: for k-scope, all of the people that are

00:05:39: Speaker 3: driving in from from areas you know,

00:05:42: Speaker 3: tennessee or west virginia or somewhere.

00:05:44: Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, how far is that?

00:05:44: Speaker 3: And they're like, oh, it's about 14 hours,

00:05:46: Speaker 3: okay.

00:05:47: Speaker 3: Okay.

00:05:47: Speaker 3: Yeah, I was complaining about my commute,

00:05:49: Speaker 3: but yeah, that's pretty serious.

00:05:52: Speaker 1: So how long does it take to travel from

00:05:54: Speaker 1: Australia to Texas?

00:05:56: Speaker 3: Well, so this is the most tragic thing

00:05:58: Speaker 3: about it.

00:05:58: Speaker 3: This is the first time I've actually been

00:05:59: Speaker 3: able to just fly direct.

00:06:00: Speaker 3: So I actually flew Melbourne to Dallas and

00:06:02: Speaker 3: now I'm spoiled because normally I have to

00:06:04: Speaker 3: like go through LA and deal with LAX and

00:06:07: Speaker 3: everything else and it's like 24 hours kind

00:06:08: Speaker 3: of end to end, but this was like 17 hours.

00:06:11: Speaker 3: I got off the plane and just you know.

00:06:12: Speaker 1: How luxurious.

00:06:13: Speaker 1: And I'm complaining about 11 hours nonstop

00:06:16: Speaker 1: flight from Frankfurt, right, all right.

00:06:18: Speaker 1: So you already teased like a couple of

00:06:20: Speaker 1: words.

00:06:21: Speaker 1: I had like question marks on my mind.

00:06:27: Speaker 1: Like a couple of words.

00:06:27: Speaker 1: I had like question marks on my mind, so I

00:06:28: Speaker 1: invited you.

00:06:29: Speaker 1: As someone who drives the communities and

00:06:30: Speaker 1: various contributions were made in the EPM

00:06:31: Speaker 1: area, tell me something like EPM in a

00:06:34: Speaker 1: nutshell.

00:06:36: Speaker 1: As an Apex guy, as an Oracle database guy,

00:06:39: Speaker 1: what should I know about EPM?

00:06:41: Speaker 3: Okay.

00:06:41: Speaker 3: So EPM is a bit of a kind of a blanket term,

00:06:44: Speaker 3: kind of wrapped around enterprise

00:06:46: Speaker 3: performance management.

00:06:48: Speaker 3: I want to say that Oracle invented the word.

00:06:49: Speaker 3: They've certainly, you know, put a lot of

00:06:51: Speaker 3: marketing dollars towards popularizing it

00:06:52: Speaker 3: and making it theirs.

00:06:53: Speaker 3: But the entire framework is trying to put

00:06:57: Speaker 3: apps to wrap around kind of financial

00:06:59: Speaker 3: processes that exist for an organization

00:07:02: Speaker 3: and so within an organization generally,

00:07:04: Speaker 3: you've got you know, you kind of you call

00:07:06: Speaker 3: business, which could be manufacturing, it

00:07:07: Speaker 3: could be you know, services, business, it

00:07:09: Speaker 3: could be whatever, and then you've got kind

00:07:11: Speaker 3: of the shared services framework that wrap

00:07:12: Speaker 3: around that and so that will be things.

00:07:15: Speaker 3: The EPM is mostly financial forecast, but

00:07:16: Speaker 3: not exclusively, and I'll touch on that in

00:07:18: Speaker 3: a moment.

00:07:25: Speaker 3: So EPM, insofar as how we see it, is kind

00:07:26: Speaker 3: of wrapping together, kind of the

00:07:27: Speaker 3: forecasting of what you're doing, how much

00:07:28: Speaker 3: that's going to cost, how much revenue

00:07:29: Speaker 3: you're going to get.

00:07:29: Speaker 3: It's for the thing about allocations.

00:07:31: Speaker 3: I might have a product and now I want to

00:07:33: Speaker 3: allocate all my overheads to it to find out

00:07:35: Speaker 3: how profitable that is in the market

00:07:37: Speaker 3: segment.

00:07:38: Speaker 3: I might want to take my longer term

00:07:40: Speaker 3: forecasts in there to try to work out what,

00:07:42: Speaker 3: which industries and areas, I want to

00:07:44: Speaker 3: invest in.

00:07:45: Speaker 3: I've then got account reconciliation, which

00:07:47: Speaker 3: is incredibly detailed tech accounting, but

00:07:50: Speaker 3: really that's are the numbers in my system

00:07:54: Speaker 3: actually justifiable?

00:07:55: Speaker 3: And I suppose that's always funny.

00:07:57: Speaker 3: Particularly talk to database people.

00:07:58: Speaker 3: They're like well, it's in the system, it's,

00:08:00: Speaker 3: it is what it is, but there's a, I suppose,

00:08:02: Speaker 3: a business process wrapped around that, and

00:08:04: Speaker 3: so these tools kind of support that

00:08:05: Speaker 3: business process, support the words,

00:08:07: Speaker 3: support the text, support the commentary,

00:08:10: Speaker 3: support the approval frameworks that you

00:08:12: Speaker 3: might have.

00:08:13: Speaker 1: So this is highly individual right for

00:08:16: Speaker 1: every customer, I guess.

00:08:18: Speaker 1: So I always think about like SAP, so it

00:08:21: Speaker 1: might be comparable right.

00:08:23: Speaker 1: Ip, so it might be comparable, right.

00:08:24: Speaker 1: So you have a core system, you have data in

00:08:25: Speaker 1: it and you have like multiple modules

00:08:27: Speaker 1: around that to rebuild like business

00:08:29: Speaker 1: processes, right.

00:08:31: Speaker 1: So this is happening in my mind right now.

00:08:33: Speaker 1: So you have processes around data and it's

00:08:35: Speaker 1: not only just physical data in a row, it is

00:08:38: Speaker 1: like like polished data and calculated data

00:08:41: Speaker 1: and business data around it and probably

00:08:43: Speaker 1: the.

00:08:43: Speaker 1: Please say if it's completely wrong what

00:08:45: Speaker 1: I'm saying so we're not going in the wrong

00:08:46: Speaker 1: direction.

00:08:47: Speaker 3: You're not too far off, but it's probably

00:08:48: Speaker 3: also more the explainability and the

00:08:50: Speaker 3: analysis of what that data means.

00:08:52: Speaker 3: Oh, okay, so it is interesting to say you

00:08:55: Speaker 3: think about things like consolidation.

00:08:57: Speaker 3: So that's the.

00:08:58: Speaker 3: I have all of these different companies and

00:08:59: Speaker 3: I'm trying to add all that data together

00:09:01: Speaker 3: and do all of the magical accounting to.

00:09:03: Speaker 3: You know, offshore tax, you know whatever.

00:09:05: Speaker 3: Yeah, that's yeah, but, um, I wanna do

00:09:08: Speaker 3: those, I wanna do those processes and then

00:09:09: Speaker 3: I I come up with a consolidated reporting

00:09:11: Speaker 3: that's a reasonably standardized and

00:09:13: Speaker 3: standardizable process for most

00:09:15: Speaker 3: organizations.

00:09:16: Speaker 3: You know there are some core accounting

00:09:17: Speaker 3: rules that you have to follow.

00:09:18: Speaker 3: There's some core structures that generally

00:09:20: Speaker 3: make sense, but there's a little bit of, I

00:09:22: Speaker 3: suppose, syntax and everything else to it.

00:09:24: Speaker 3: You know some someone might want to see a

00:09:26: Speaker 3: report in a particular way, but it's not

00:09:27: Speaker 3: too.

00:09:28: Speaker 3: It's generally pretty structured.

00:09:29: Speaker 3: Account reconciliation is kind of along

00:09:31: Speaker 3: that same path.

00:09:32: Speaker 3: Right, you've got.

00:09:33: Speaker 3: I need to make sure that my number of in my

00:09:36: Speaker 3: cash account is the same as the number

00:09:38: Speaker 3: that's in the bank account.

00:09:39: Speaker 3: And all the things going in and out of

00:09:40: Speaker 3: those accounts are kind of aligned, and I'm

00:09:42: Speaker 3: not.

00:09:43: Speaker 3: I don't have more money in my bank account

00:09:45: Speaker 3: than my ERP says that I have, so those

00:09:48: Speaker 3: processes are really more kind of building

00:09:51: Speaker 3: frameworks and structures and trying to do

00:09:53: Speaker 3: all the heavy lifting.

00:09:53: Speaker 3: There's a lot of stuff that Oracle in

00:09:55: Speaker 3: particular, are throwing a lot of money at

00:09:57: Speaker 3: automating some of the nonsense heavy

00:09:59: Speaker 3: lifting, some of the heavy lifting that

00:10:01: Speaker 3: makes no sense, like saying that, oh, this

00:10:03: Speaker 3: transaction matches this transaction, but

00:10:06: Speaker 3: oh, they've put a, they've mistyped the

00:10:08: Speaker 3: name and have called it IBM on this side

00:10:10: Speaker 3: and integrated business machines on this

00:10:11: Speaker 3: side, but that is the same thing.

00:10:14: Speaker 3: So a lot of that kind of stuff, which

00:10:15: Speaker 3: historically has just been humans sitting

00:10:17: Speaker 3: down and scrolling down a page and knowing

00:10:19: Speaker 3: what those things are, are things that can

00:10:21: Speaker 3: be replaced by analytics.

00:10:23: Speaker 3: I think for me, where you start, where

00:10:30: Speaker 3: everyone is their own special little

00:10:30: Speaker 3: snowflake is how I frame it when I'm being

00:10:31: Speaker 3: a bit cynical is probably planning and

00:10:33: Speaker 3: budgeting, where there are core things that

00:10:34: Speaker 3: you need to do.

00:10:35: Speaker 3: You need to get to a P&L, you need to get

00:10:36: Speaker 3: to a balance sheet, you need to get to a

00:10:37: Speaker 3: cashflow, but for your organization there

00:10:41: Speaker 3: are always things that you're trying to do

00:10:43: Speaker 3: to separate yourself out from the

00:10:44: Speaker 3: competition.

00:10:44: Speaker 3: You know there might be different ways that

00:10:46: Speaker 3: you're trying to structure your bill of

00:10:47: Speaker 3: materials or structure how you're selling

00:10:50: Speaker 3: or structure you know even just kind of

00:10:52: Speaker 3: core things of how you want you know the

00:10:54: Speaker 3: demand to be kind of built up and done.

00:10:58: Speaker 3: That kind of mean that in the planning

00:10:59: Speaker 3: space you build a framework and then you

00:11:02: Speaker 3: overlay all of the things that the company

00:11:04: Speaker 3: actually wants to do and how the users

00:11:07: Speaker 3: think about things.

00:11:08: Speaker 1: Okay, so you should have a pretty good

00:11:10: Speaker 1: understanding of how a company works, right?

00:11:12: Speaker 1: So you said there are a few core structures

00:11:14: Speaker 1: that are mostly similar in different

00:11:17: Speaker 1: companies across the world, right?

00:11:19: Speaker 1: Or are you focusing on Australian companies,

00:11:21: Speaker 1: or American companies, or even European

00:11:24: Speaker 1: companies?

00:11:25: Speaker 3: I think it's really interesting.

00:11:26: Speaker 3: I mean, it's the.

00:11:27: Speaker 3: Even if we pick on something like workforce,

00:11:29: Speaker 3: like, everyone has employees, right,

00:11:31: Speaker 3: there's very few companies in the world

00:11:32: Speaker 3: that exist without employees or for whom

00:11:35: Speaker 3: employees and workforce is not a core cost

00:11:37: Speaker 3: component Great, they're all.

00:11:39: Speaker 3: They're all must therefore be forecast the

00:11:41: Speaker 3: same way.

00:11:42: Speaker 3: And then, as you dive deeper into that,

00:11:44: Speaker 3: you've got a whole stack of different tax

00:11:47: Speaker 3: rates, vacancy kind of proponents, leave

00:11:50: Speaker 3: components, all of these different things.

00:11:52: Speaker 3: That US is very different to Germany is

00:11:54: Speaker 3: very different to Australia.

00:11:56: Speaker 3: So I think that as you dive deeper into the

00:11:58: Speaker 3: detail, the differences become bigger.

00:12:01: Speaker 3: So a lot of what is important to do,

00:12:04: Speaker 3: particularly as a consultant, is kind of

00:12:06: Speaker 3: going right.

00:12:07: Speaker 3: Well, we could go all the way down to the

00:12:09: Speaker 3: individual layer.

00:12:10: Speaker 3: We could effectively replicate your payroll

00:12:12: Speaker 3: system into forecasts, but what value is

00:12:15: Speaker 3: that really giving you?

00:12:18: Speaker 3: The actual answer you want is how much is

00:12:20: Speaker 3: it going to cost me to pay my staff?

00:12:22: Speaker 3: What is my current cohort?

00:12:23: Speaker 3: If I'm going to do all of these new things

00:12:25: Speaker 3: that I want to do over the next 12 months,

00:12:26: Speaker 3: how many more people am I going to need?

00:12:28: Speaker 3: Therefore, how much is that going to cost

00:12:29: Speaker 3: me?

00:12:30: Speaker 3: But I probably don't care about how much I

00:12:33: Speaker 3: may need to move between these specific tax

00:12:35: Speaker 3: accounts and all of those things.

00:12:36: Speaker 3: As long as I've got the overhead of how

00:12:38: Speaker 3: much it's going to cost at an expense level

00:12:40: Speaker 3: and all of those kind of frameworks, it

00:12:42: Speaker 3: makes sense.

00:12:42: Speaker 3: So it's good to be challenged to try to

00:12:46: Speaker 3: simplify and standardize across the board.

00:12:48: Speaker 3: But it is always interesting the more you

00:12:50: Speaker 3: know about something, the more you can see

00:12:52: Speaker 3: kind of the differences start to expose

00:12:53: Speaker 3: themselves out and I suppose it's always

00:12:55: Speaker 3: really telling you know things like account

00:12:57: Speaker 3: reconciliation.

00:12:57: Speaker 3: I kind of said that my auditors talked to

00:12:59: Speaker 3: me about that and they get very excited and

00:13:01: Speaker 3: they talk about the Excel files and how

00:13:03: Speaker 3: you've got to match all of these things up

00:13:05: Speaker 3: and honestly I'm just like that sounds fine

00:13:08: Speaker 3: but it really is.

00:13:09: Speaker 3: As you understand the detail that sits

00:13:11: Speaker 3: behind it, you understand how some of those

00:13:13: Speaker 3: things can be done really quickly and

00:13:14: Speaker 3: easily and where some of the risks are

00:13:16: Speaker 3: going to come and all the differences and

00:13:18: Speaker 3: why those processes are important and how

00:13:20: Speaker 3: you can really ease the lives of the people

00:13:23: Speaker 3: that are otherwise doing.

00:13:23: Speaker 3: Account reconciliation is a constant,

00:13:26: Speaker 3: ongoing process.

00:13:27: Speaker 3: You don't get to finish it and then be like

00:13:29: Speaker 3: cool, I'm done, you know it's.

00:13:31: Speaker 3: You then do the next load and you keep

00:13:33: Speaker 3: going.

00:13:33: Speaker 3: It's almost a continuous process.

00:13:35: Speaker 3: So the um, you know, automating that and

00:13:38: Speaker 3: making those processes easy and simplified

00:13:40: Speaker 3: and standardized actually adds a lot of

00:13:41: Speaker 3: value because you know someone on leave at

00:13:44: Speaker 3: month end, which is sounds crazy to say out

00:13:46: Speaker 3: loud but but honestly for some

00:13:47: Speaker 3: organizations it's got such key person

00:13:50: Speaker 3: dependencies that you know can't leave on a

00:13:52: Speaker 3: quarter end because you're the only one

00:13:54: Speaker 3: that knows how to open that excel file and

00:13:57: Speaker 3: run that vba macro to bring all the data in

00:13:59: Speaker 3: and do the matching.

00:14:00: Speaker 1: So yeah, so this, this sounds as a very

00:14:02: Speaker 1: wide topic, right?

00:14:04: Speaker 1: So we are talking about EPM and it's

00:14:07: Speaker 1: basically you already said that there are

00:14:09: Speaker 1: different kind of parts of the EPM

00:14:12: Speaker 1: community, right?

00:14:13: Speaker 1: So, just for our listeners, we're sitting

00:14:14: Speaker 1: here at Kscope right now and there's kind

00:14:17: Speaker 1: of a separation between not a real

00:14:19: Speaker 1: separation, but you talk about APEX stuff,

00:14:21: Speaker 1: database stuff and EPM, and EPM has so many

00:14:25: Speaker 1: different, like you said already planning.

00:14:27: Speaker 1: You have analytics in it or is it a

00:14:29: Speaker 1: separate part?

00:14:29: Speaker 1: Analytics?

00:14:30: Speaker 3: is kind of another bit again, but we'll get

00:14:31: Speaker 3: to that Another bit again, okay, so?

00:14:32: Speaker 1: you have different separations inside EPM

00:14:35: Speaker 1: and you have specialists for each and every

00:14:37: Speaker 1: case, right?

00:14:38: Speaker 1: So you are talking about your company, you

00:14:40: Speaker 1: built up Pivot2, and you have specialists

00:14:43: Speaker 1: for everything.

00:14:45: Speaker 1: Bit up Pivot 2, and you have specialists

00:14:46: Speaker 1: for everything.

00:14:47: Speaker 1: Or do you have all-rounder that might do

00:14:49: Speaker 1: anything and you just decide who's fitting

00:14:51: Speaker 1: to the customer XYZ for which project?

00:14:53: Speaker 3: Within my team everyone's pretty much a

00:14:55: Speaker 3: planning specialist first and foremost

00:14:57: Speaker 3: We've got probably the most experience in

00:14:58: Speaker 3: that and then probably in the sub-areas.

00:15:01: Speaker 3: It kind of either splits down to industry

00:15:03: Speaker 3: or the additional products, so it might be

00:15:05: Speaker 3: a specialization in narrative reporting or

00:15:06: Speaker 3: a specialization in the sub areas.

00:15:06: Speaker 3: It kind of either splits down industry or

00:15:07: Speaker 3: the additional products, so it might be a

00:15:08: Speaker 3: specialization in narrative reporting or a

00:15:09: Speaker 3: specialization in the higher education

00:15:10: Speaker 3: sector or the manufacturing sector you

00:15:12: Speaker 3: mentioned earlier on.

00:15:14: Speaker 3: It seems like you need to understand a lot

00:15:15: Speaker 3: about the business and fundamentally that's

00:15:17: Speaker 3: true.

00:15:18: Speaker 3: I mean you walk into an organization, you

00:15:20: Speaker 3: kind of need to know very, very quickly

00:15:24: Speaker 3: what their actual outcomes are.

00:15:26: Speaker 3: You know what their levers are, how

00:15:28: Speaker 3: internally those things may be structured

00:15:31: Speaker 3: as well.

00:15:31: Speaker 3: That makes it easy for us right, because

00:15:33: Speaker 3: you know that problem looks similar to a

00:15:35: Speaker 3: problem that I solved three clients ago, so

00:15:37: Speaker 3: I can kind of use the experience from that

00:15:39: Speaker 3: and redo it.

00:15:39: Speaker 3: But the reality is within an industry spec

00:15:43: Speaker 3: or within a specific application spec.

00:15:45: Speaker 3: As you get into the detail, having that

00:15:47: Speaker 3: domain expertise is incredibly valuable At

00:15:52: Speaker 3: probably being able to do the trickiest

00:15:55: Speaker 3: part, which is actually explaining to the

00:15:57: Speaker 3: customer and the client what it is that

00:15:59: Speaker 3: they're doing and where the value is and

00:16:01: Speaker 3: where the gaps are and what best practice

00:16:03: Speaker 3: looks like.

00:16:04: Speaker 3: It's quite easy.

00:16:05: Speaker 3: Well, it's quite easy, he says about to go

00:16:08: Speaker 3: deliver a planning presentation on all the

00:16:10: Speaker 3: ways you can mess up the planning

00:16:11: Speaker 3: application.

00:16:11: Speaker 3: But it's quite easy to build the technical

00:16:14: Speaker 3: side that has and there's a lot of work

00:16:17: Speaker 3: that's been done and it is just kind of a

00:16:19: Speaker 3: framework.

00:16:19: Speaker 3: A lot of those processes and you know this

00:16:21: Speaker 3: from the apex world right that now is so

00:16:24: Speaker 3: much easier to do.

00:16:26: Speaker 3: You don't have to do some of the work that

00:16:28: Speaker 3: you were doing a decade ago.

00:16:30: Speaker 3: Some of those technical processes that

00:16:31: Speaker 3: existed and the things that you needed to

00:16:33: Speaker 3: know to make it work really, really well

00:16:35: Speaker 3: have kind of solved a lot of those problems.

00:16:37: Speaker 3: But the fundamental of I'm building a form

00:16:41: Speaker 3: but a user has to use that and they have to

00:16:43: Speaker 3: understand what it looks like and it's got

00:16:45: Speaker 3: to be consistent and it's got to be, it's

00:16:47: Speaker 3: got to do what they think it's going to do

00:16:49: Speaker 3: every time.

00:16:50: Speaker 3: And and as you add more complexity to that,

00:16:52: Speaker 3: you know you've really got to kind of bear

00:16:53: Speaker 3: it back to.

00:16:54: Speaker 3: Well, what is actually the expectation of

00:16:56: Speaker 3: the experience that we're trying to do.

00:16:58: Speaker 3: There are some similarities.

00:16:59: Speaker 1: So when I'm now imagine, imagine how you

00:17:03: Speaker 1: guys work.

00:17:04: Speaker 1: So you come to a customer obviously there's

00:17:06: Speaker 1: so much work to understand what's happening

00:17:08: Speaker 1: there and try to adapt what you already

00:17:11: Speaker 1: know and you see the problem right.

00:17:13: Speaker 1: So you might see more problems than the

00:17:16: Speaker 1: customer themselves, but you're starting at

00:17:18: Speaker 1: the groundwork, right.

00:17:20: Speaker 1: So you structure on the data, on all those

00:17:23: Speaker 1: processes around that.

00:17:25: Speaker 1: Are you reaching the level of writing, like

00:17:27: Speaker 1: UI, into X parts or so?

00:17:29: Speaker 1: Are there any frameworks you already use?

00:17:32: Speaker 1: Is Oracle providing that, or are you just

00:17:35: Speaker 1: deciding for front end development?

00:17:37: Speaker 1: What are you doing there?

00:17:38: Speaker 3: Well, so it's quite interesting because a

00:17:40: Speaker 3: couple of years ago we pivoted and we also

00:17:43: Speaker 3: have a drinking game where every time you

00:17:44: Speaker 3: use the word pivot unironically, you've got

00:17:47: Speaker 3: a drink which can make the board meetings

00:17:49: Speaker 3: hilarious.

00:17:51: Speaker 3: No, we pivoted to using to kind of focusing

00:17:54: Speaker 3: more on NetSuite, epm.

00:17:56: Speaker 3: So NetSuite I don't know if you're aware,

00:17:57: Speaker 3: but NetSuite's, let's say, the younger

00:18:00: Speaker 3: cousin of kind of Oracle ERP, cloud-based,

00:18:04: Speaker 3: first and foremost, really targeted at

00:18:06: Speaker 3: probably smaller clients than Oracle ERP

00:18:09: Speaker 3: and certainly probably smaller than SAP.

00:18:11: Speaker 3: You know, very flexible.

00:18:14: Speaker 3: It's got like the app store kind of

00:18:16: Speaker 3: framework where you can kind of bring in

00:18:17: Speaker 3: different features.

00:18:18: Speaker 3: If you don't like the way NetSuite does it

00:18:20: Speaker 3: timesheeting you can bring in another

00:18:22: Speaker 3: product and purchase from another vendor

00:18:24: Speaker 3: and it's all embedded in there.

00:18:25: Speaker 3: So it's really really flexible kind of set

00:18:27: Speaker 3: ERP and really targeted towards

00:18:30: Speaker 3: organizations that are kind of moving off

00:18:32: Speaker 3: the my first ERP right, like they've.

00:18:34: Speaker 3: They were on Xero or QuickBooks or you know

00:18:37: Speaker 3: MYOB or something and they've grown from

00:18:41: Speaker 3: you know, a mom and pop kind of store and

00:18:42: Speaker 3: now they're a $50 million organization, and

00:18:44: Speaker 3: they've grown from you know a mom and pop

00:18:44: Speaker 3: kind of store and now they're a $50 million

00:18:45: Speaker 3: organization and they've still got two

00:18:46: Speaker 3: people in finance, okay.

00:18:48: Speaker 3: So it's really that generative step of okay,

00:18:50: Speaker 3: cool, I now need to go and get a new ERP.

00:18:54: Speaker 3: We love it, though, because then we come in

00:18:56: Speaker 3: and talk about EPM and planning and

00:18:58: Speaker 3: reporting and forecasting, and a lot of the

00:19:00: Speaker 3: time, they're very, very keen on the idea

00:19:03: Speaker 3: of going what we do now we can't see a way

00:19:07: Speaker 3: of making this sustainable going forward.

00:19:09: Speaker 3: Right, it works now because the CFO

00:19:11: Speaker 3: understands the spreadsheet and on Friday

00:19:14: Speaker 3: night they can do the cash flows and they

00:19:17: Speaker 3: can kind of make it work, but they also

00:19:19: Speaker 3: can't hand it off to anyone else and they

00:19:21: Speaker 3: can't really extend it.

00:19:22: Speaker 3: And if the business keeps growing and you

00:19:24: Speaker 3: know, two, three, four X size year on year,

00:19:27: Speaker 3: this is not gonna work and not gonna scale.

00:19:30: Speaker 3: So they're really keen on the idea of us

00:19:31: Speaker 3: kind of coming in and saying, right, well,

00:19:33: Speaker 3: what are you doing?

00:19:33: Speaker 3: Now?

00:19:34: Speaker 3: Let's understand how you're structured and

00:19:35: Speaker 3: how you think about your business, but

00:19:37: Speaker 3: let's actually take that and put it on a

00:19:38: Speaker 3: platform that is simple and easy to use,

00:19:40: Speaker 3: with really the goal being hey, we want to

00:19:43: Speaker 3: be able to do all of these things so much

00:19:45: Speaker 3: easier and faster.

00:19:47: Speaker 3: I think the key change that we're seeing

00:19:49: Speaker 3: and this is, I don't think it's just an

00:19:50: Speaker 3: Australian thing, but it's certainly very

00:19:53: Speaker 3: dominant in Australia is doing so much more

00:19:56: Speaker 3: with less right it's.

00:19:58: Speaker 3: You know, we're coming in to put in EPM, to

00:20:01: Speaker 3: put in ARCs, to put in planning, to put in

00:20:02: Speaker 3: narrative reporting, not because, oh, I've

00:20:05: Speaker 3: got this heavy 30 people finance team and I

00:20:08: Speaker 3: want to reduce headcount by five, because I

00:20:09: Speaker 3: think I might be done.

00:20:10: Speaker 3: They're like we've got three people, we

00:20:13: Speaker 3: want to grow by five times over the next

00:20:14: Speaker 3: three years and I want to keep three people.

00:20:17: Speaker 3: So it just means the scale of what you're

00:20:20: Speaker 3: trying to do you kind of get that real

00:20:22: Speaker 3: opportunity to come in and actually affect

00:20:24: Speaker 3: good change management and do it, whereas

00:20:27: Speaker 3: so often in the bigger kind of Oracle EPM

00:20:30: Speaker 3: ones and this is not to say that you can't

00:20:31: Speaker 3: do a good Oracle EPM project, but a lot of

00:20:33: Speaker 3: the time if you go into a bank or an

00:20:35: Speaker 3: insurance company and they've been, they've

00:20:37: Speaker 3: existed for 140 years and these

00:20:39: Speaker 3: spreadsheets you know they started in Excel

00:20:42: Speaker 3: 94 and it's basically been versioned up

00:20:45: Speaker 3: since then and it's, you know, 300 tabs and

00:20:48: Speaker 3: then you go, oh, and there's actually

00:20:49: Speaker 3: another 20 spreadsheets that we haven't

00:20:50: Speaker 3: sent to you yet and you go, oh, great, okay,

00:20:53: Speaker 3: cool, and change management of that side is

00:20:55: Speaker 3: so hard to do that there are a lot of

00:20:58: Speaker 3: projects where you spend 12 months you

00:21:01: Speaker 3: analyze the spreadsheet and then at the end

00:21:04: Speaker 3: of it you realize all you've really done is

00:21:05: Speaker 3: move their spreadsheet to the cloud.

00:21:08: Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.

00:21:08: Speaker 3: And it all feels the same and so on.

00:21:10: Speaker 3: You're really like, well, okay, have we

00:21:11: Speaker 3: actually massively added value because we

00:21:14: Speaker 3: couldn't fight the good?

00:21:15: Speaker 1: change management, replicating.

00:21:17: Speaker 1: So you're not just having the positive

00:21:19: Speaker 1: points of spreadsheets if there might one

00:21:21: Speaker 1: or some, you just get the negative things

00:21:24: Speaker 1: out there too, right.

00:21:24: Speaker 1: So, spreadsheets, if there might one or

00:21:25: Speaker 1: some, you just get the negative things out

00:21:26: Speaker 1: there too, right.

00:21:26: Speaker 1: So, exactly, and before what you said it

00:21:27: Speaker 1: sounded like it's your favorite kind of

00:21:29: Speaker 1: project, right?

00:21:30: Speaker 1: So you're coming into a company which is

00:21:32: Speaker 1: like working good, it's going to grow like

00:21:35: Speaker 1: five times, as you said, or three times in

00:21:41: Speaker 1: the next five years, and you just help them

00:21:43: Speaker 1: to get rid of all the stuff that is coming

00:21:46: Speaker 1: financial wise and you're building up

00:21:47: Speaker 1: everything.

00:21:47: Speaker 1: So, to have a kind of a technical wise,

00:21:51: Speaker 1: you're building up an environment with

00:21:52: Speaker 1: oracle, epm, building some, some modules in

00:21:55: Speaker 1: it, like you said, time sheeting and so on.

00:21:57: Speaker 1: We're talking about servers, right?

00:21:59: Speaker 1: So you're buying servers, putting them in

00:22:01: Speaker 1: the rack, or maybe they have some, you're

00:22:03: Speaker 1: inside the software on it or you go to

00:22:04: Speaker 1: cloud.

00:22:05: Speaker 3: This is this is sass.

00:22:06: Speaker 3: This is the greatest thing in the world.

00:22:07: Speaker 3: I don't have to worry about any of that

00:22:09: Speaker 3: anymore.

00:22:09: Speaker 3: Okay, it is so turnkey.

00:22:12: Speaker 3: Look, obviously I've been doing this for

00:22:14: Speaker 3: long enough that I have done a lot of done

00:22:16: Speaker 3: installs, did version 9 or planning 9

00:22:20: Speaker 3: installs and everything else, and it was a

00:22:22: Speaker 3: nightmare.

00:22:22: Speaker 3: It was honestly just the least enjoyable

00:22:24: Speaker 3: part of the job, because you would do an

00:22:26: Speaker 3: entire dev environment and it'd be four

00:22:28: Speaker 3: servers and a replication server and an

00:22:30: Speaker 3: S-based server and you'd spin them all up

00:22:32: Speaker 3: and it'd take two days and if everything

00:22:34: Speaker 3: worked, then you had to do test and prod as

00:22:37: Speaker 3: well.

00:22:37: Speaker 1: Right, and it was just like oh, this is

00:22:39: Speaker 1: really not that enjoyable.

00:22:40: Speaker 1: It's not a copy, you do everything from

00:22:41: Speaker 1: scratch right.

00:22:42: Speaker 3: Exactly, that's kind of the old way of

00:22:43: Speaker 3: doing it and then moving to cloud.

00:22:45: Speaker 3: Now, with it being 100% SaaS and

00:22:47: Speaker 3: particularly with the kind of Oracle

00:22:48: Speaker 3: sorting the provisioning process, the

00:22:50: Speaker 3: client signs the paperwork, they send it

00:22:53: Speaker 3: across and we get an email you know two

00:22:55: Speaker 3: days later going, here's your URL, log in,

00:22:57: Speaker 3: right and it's done and there's nothing.

00:23:00: Speaker 3: And for some of our clients, particularly

00:23:02: Speaker 3: for some, we still have kind of on-premises

00:23:04: Speaker 3: servers.

00:23:05: Speaker 3: If we need to do some integrations, they

00:23:06: Speaker 3: might have some files or a different kind

00:23:08: Speaker 3: of source system.

00:23:08: Speaker 3: We need to bring some data in so we can use

00:23:10: Speaker 3: kind of install an agent and then kind of

00:23:12: Speaker 3: send data up and down from the cloud.

00:23:19: Speaker 3: But if it's connections into the ERP and we

00:23:20: Speaker 3: can use rest APIs to kind of call if

00:23:21: Speaker 3: they've got a payroll system or or you know,

00:23:22: Speaker 3: a CRM, that we can just fire off a rest API

00:23:24: Speaker 3: query and bring the data in, we don't need

00:23:26: Speaker 3: to even have an on-premises server at all

00:23:29: Speaker 3: for anything.

00:23:30: Speaker 3: We don't even need to store data backups

00:23:32: Speaker 3: down anymore because it's all online on the

00:23:34: Speaker 3: cloud.

00:23:34: Speaker 3: So it is so much easier to manage.

00:23:37: Speaker 1: How?

00:23:37: Speaker 1: How does the Americans feel by storing

00:23:40: Speaker 1: everything in the cloud?

00:23:41: Speaker 1: So in European countries we have like,

00:23:43: Speaker 1: especially in Germany, we have those, those.

00:23:46: Speaker 1: I don't think it's a special thing, but

00:23:48: Speaker 1: people are saying, no, I wanna have my data

00:23:50: Speaker 1: at my place.

00:23:50: Speaker 1: Even this might be the most crucial part of

00:23:53: Speaker 1: a company that they have their numbers

00:23:56: Speaker 1: right, so they don't spread them around or

00:23:58: Speaker 1: send those secrets around.

00:24:00: Speaker 3: And you're telling me now that companies

00:24:02: Speaker 3: that are going to grow and they have all

00:24:04: Speaker 3: the different sensitive data are saying, oh,

00:24:08: Speaker 3: it's available via SaaS, we can just give

00:24:10: Speaker 3: it away in other hands and it's working at

00:24:13: Speaker 3: Oregon space and by it is interesting, I

00:24:16: Speaker 3: think, that a couple of psychological

00:24:19: Speaker 3: studies done kind of the how trusting

00:24:22: Speaker 3: different, different kind of communities in

00:24:24: Speaker 3: different kind of nation states are, and

00:24:27: Speaker 3: Australia is marked as very, very trusting

00:24:30: Speaker 3: and of kind of systems and processes and

00:24:32: Speaker 3: the government and all of these things.

00:24:34: Speaker 3: There's a lot of reasons for it, mostly

00:24:35: Speaker 3: cultural, but because also IT costs and

00:24:40: Speaker 3: server costs and everything else was so

00:24:41: Speaker 3: high in Australia and there's a number of

00:24:43: Speaker 3: reasons for that and the big ones are

00:24:45: Speaker 3: really just that the hardware costs were

00:24:47: Speaker 3: astronomical.

00:24:48: Speaker 3: Particularly you're importing out of the US,

00:24:50: Speaker 3: it was difficult to get hold of things.

00:24:51: Speaker 3: If something broke you might be waiting two

00:24:53: Speaker 3: weeks to get it sent over, and if you're

00:24:56: Speaker 3: running a server, okay, great.

00:24:58: Speaker 3: So now I've got to replicate everything,

00:24:59: Speaker 3: now I've got to have two data centers and

00:25:01: Speaker 3: it's just that cost just starts to explode

00:25:05: Speaker 3: and we don't have the population density to

00:25:07: Speaker 3: really support it.

00:25:08: Speaker 3: And all of a sudden everyone was like oh,

00:25:09: Speaker 3: okay, well, we'll use Telstra, which is one

00:25:11: Speaker 3: of our big kind of telecommunication

00:25:12: Speaker 3: providers, we'll use them to run our data

00:25:15: Speaker 3: centers for us.

00:25:16: Speaker 3: And once you've done that, taking that next

00:25:18: Speaker 3: step and going, oh, we'll just put it on

00:25:20: Speaker 3: the cloud is very, very easy, and then that

00:25:24: Speaker 3: really accelerated during COVID.

00:25:26: Speaker 3: But you know, all of a sudden, particularly

00:25:27: Speaker 3: Melbourne, but even Sydney and Brisbane,

00:25:30: Speaker 3: fundamentally locked down so you were not

00:25:32: Speaker 3: going into an office.

00:25:34: Speaker 3: So if you had a server farm in an office

00:25:37: Speaker 3: and it broke, never a problem right?

00:25:40: Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was an unsolvable problem.

00:25:47: Speaker 3: So having the things on the cloud meant

00:25:48: Speaker 3: that all of a sudden everyone had access to

00:25:49: Speaker 3: it and it didn't have to have a SharePoint

00:25:50: Speaker 3: site up where you're sharing Excel files

00:25:52: Speaker 3: around but then, oh, actually someone's

00:25:54: Speaker 3: downloaded it accidentally and taken it

00:25:55: Speaker 3: offline and now you've got two versions of

00:25:57: Speaker 3: it, Everything being kind of active and

00:25:59: Speaker 3: always there, even though I mean it's

00:26:02: Speaker 3: interesting.

00:26:02: Speaker 3: You kind of look, you know financial stat

00:26:04: Speaker 3: data, you know consolidated data.

00:26:06: Speaker 3: Consolidated reporting is obviously core

00:26:07: Speaker 3: business data.

00:26:08: Speaker 3: It's like under the highest level of

00:26:09: Speaker 3: security, the thing about planning data and

00:26:11: Speaker 3: forecast data.

00:26:12: Speaker 3: In many ways it's even more problematic to

00:26:14: Speaker 3: have out there, right, because you know

00:26:16: Speaker 3: that data set is, you know, the future of

00:26:18: Speaker 3: the company, not just the past.

00:26:20: Speaker 3: Sure, but yeah, australia in particular

00:26:23: Speaker 3: really has leaned into that.

00:26:25: Speaker 3: But it is interesting when we then talk to

00:26:30: Speaker 3: customers who are looking at other products.

00:26:32: Speaker 3: There is this little bit of nervousness

00:26:33: Speaker 3: where Oracle can just kind of come in and

00:26:35: Speaker 3: say well, it's on an Oracle data center,

00:26:36: Speaker 3: it's on Oracle hardware, you know it's on,

00:26:38: Speaker 3: you know it's all there, you know it's all,

00:26:39: Speaker 3: it's all one stack.

00:26:40: Speaker 3: It's a very, very, very easy kind of you

00:26:42: Speaker 3: know kind of process conversation and

00:26:44: Speaker 3: security conversation, technical

00:26:45: Speaker 3: conversation, or a third party comes in

00:26:48: Speaker 3: even though it's fundamentally probably as

00:26:50: Speaker 3: secure you know, fundamentally all the same

00:26:52: Speaker 3: thing.

00:26:52: Speaker 3: They're like oh, we're here, and then it's

00:26:54: Speaker 3: on, it's all stored on AWS.

00:26:56: Speaker 3: And they're like oh, okay, hang on.

00:26:59: Speaker 3: So that's two.

00:26:59: Speaker 3: It's two different things.

00:27:00: Speaker 3: And you're like well, it is how it all

00:27:01: Speaker 3: works right.

00:27:02: Speaker 3: Like there's not.

00:27:02: Speaker 3: If it's set up correctly, there is no risk,

00:27:05: Speaker 3: right, or or certainly from my perspective.

00:27:08: Speaker 3: I'm not an infrastructure guy, but from my

00:27:10: Speaker 3: perspective I would prefer someone who is

00:27:13: Speaker 3: spending a lot of time and money and effort

00:27:16: Speaker 3: to do it properly.

00:27:17: Speaker 3: Even though they are a bigger target.

00:27:19: Speaker 3: I think they're going to be able to do it

00:27:20: Speaker 3: better than any organization is going to be

00:27:23: Speaker 3: able to do it themselves.

00:27:24: Speaker 1: Really, I think because of the size of

00:27:27: Speaker 1: Oracle, it is even a sign that you can.

00:27:29: Speaker 1: If you don't have any data privacy issues

00:27:33: Speaker 1: or laws or something in this, in this area,

00:27:36: Speaker 1: then you might trust Oracle with their

00:27:38: Speaker 1: stuff, right?

00:27:39: Speaker 1: So German customers uh, or even the law

00:27:42: Speaker 1: says that you have to in certain parts of

00:27:45: Speaker 1: of the of the country there are like

00:27:48: Speaker 1: governments and so on they are not allowed

00:27:50: Speaker 1: to store data outside of Germany.

00:27:53: Speaker 1: Right, so they have to have it on premises

00:27:55: Speaker 1: at some point, not on their own premises,

00:27:57: Speaker 1: but they have to have it in data centers

00:27:59: Speaker 1: that are located inside European lands,

00:28:02: Speaker 1: because this can't be accessed by any other

00:28:05: Speaker 1: state, right?

00:28:06: Speaker 3: We have similar laws that work reasonably

00:28:10: Speaker 3: well because we're a big enough kind of

00:28:11: Speaker 3: organizer or a big enough kind of market

00:28:13: Speaker 3: that you can.

00:28:15: Speaker 3: If you want to have an AWS instance in

00:28:16: Speaker 3: Melbourne and one in Sydney, you can.

00:28:17: Speaker 3: You want to have a Google cloud instance in

00:28:18: Speaker 3: Melbourne and Sydney, you can.

00:28:19: Speaker 3: You want to have an Oracle instance in

00:28:20: Speaker 3: Melbourne and Sydney, you can.

00:28:22: Speaker 3: You know.

00:28:22: Speaker 3: So we're big enough in that as a market

00:28:24: Speaker 3: that you can kind of store it all locally.

00:28:26: Speaker 3: We're also that far away that if you're at

00:28:29: Speaker 3: a massive performance hit.

00:28:31: Speaker 1: Yeah, I would ask that next year.

00:28:39: Speaker 3: So anytime it's like if I log onto the

00:28:40: Speaker 3: demos that are in Amsterdam or the ones

00:28:40: Speaker 3: over in Seattle or something, and it's like

00:28:41: Speaker 3: it's that extra half a second every single

00:28:43: Speaker 3: time, and you would know from that UX

00:28:45: Speaker 3: framework that extra half a second adds a

00:28:47: Speaker 3: lot to the performance experience.

00:28:49: Speaker 3: So for us, a lot of the time, there are

00:28:51: Speaker 3: fundamental laws around holding financial

00:28:53: Speaker 3: data in Australia and there are a lot of

00:28:55: Speaker 3: things where we haven't gone ahead.

00:28:57: Speaker 3: With NSAW, which was NetSuite Analytics

00:29:00: Speaker 3: Warehouse, it took a long time for them to

00:29:02: Speaker 3: be able to.

00:29:04: Speaker 3: They had primary data centers but they were

00:29:05: Speaker 3: also doing some replication across to the

00:29:08: Speaker 3: Singapore for for disaster recovery and,

00:29:11: Speaker 3: and really until that was solved, there

00:29:12: Speaker 3: were some organizations government

00:29:14: Speaker 3: organizations, in particular, healthcare

00:29:15: Speaker 3: organizations who were just like yep, call

00:29:18: Speaker 3: us when it's done and then we'll we'll come

00:29:19: Speaker 3: back and have this conversation because

00:29:20: Speaker 3: that's we're not even going to bother

00:29:21: Speaker 3: having that.

00:29:22: Speaker 3: You know, that's it's too.

00:29:24: Speaker 3: It's too problematic for us to solve.

00:29:26: Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's, but I will say that the

00:29:28: Speaker 3: Australia probably started a little slowly

00:29:31: Speaker 3: on the cloud side, but it really did

00:29:33: Speaker 3: explode because no one wanted to run their

00:29:35: Speaker 3: own hardware.

00:29:36: Speaker 3: It wasn't.

00:29:36: Speaker 3: There was not really a more complicated

00:29:39: Speaker 3: answer than that, it was just no one.

00:29:40: Speaker 3: It was so expensive to run your own

00:29:42: Speaker 3: hardware for so long.

00:29:43: Speaker 3: Even though as a country we actually have

00:29:45: Speaker 3: reasonably terrible internet access and you

00:29:48: Speaker 3: know there are some problems in that side,

00:29:51: Speaker 3: we still kind of love our cloud.

00:29:55: Speaker 1: Wow, you know there there are some problems

00:29:56: Speaker 1: in that side.

00:29:56: Speaker 1: We still kind of love our cloud, wow.

00:29:57: Speaker 1: So when you're doing a session here at case

00:29:58: Speaker 1: cover, talk about stuff you mentioned the

00:29:59: Speaker 1: demos or you're working on, do you switch

00:30:01: Speaker 1: the locations of the demos where you like

00:30:04: Speaker 1: connect to?

00:30:04: Speaker 3: when you're switching countries where

00:30:07: Speaker 3: you're talking, oh, we do, we do a little

00:30:08: Speaker 3: bit, not so much like I I normally.

00:30:11: Speaker 3: I I've done live demos a couple of times.

00:30:13: Speaker 3: I've been cursed by the live demos a couple

00:30:15: Speaker 3: of times, so so these days I'm normally

00:30:17: Speaker 3: doing more, more screenshots than anything

00:30:19: Speaker 3: else.

00:30:19: Speaker 3: But if I'm doing a live customer demo, um,

00:30:21: Speaker 3: uh, you know, and then they're in the US,

00:30:23: Speaker 3: I'll, I'll see if I can scan myself onto a

00:30:25: Speaker 3: US, a US one, and and do that.

00:30:27: Speaker 3: What?

00:30:27: Speaker 3: What's interesting, actually, it's we do a

00:30:30: Speaker 3: lot of work with New Zealand as well,

00:30:31: Speaker 3: Obviously the much smaller cousin to us,

00:30:39: Speaker 3: and it is interesting.

00:30:40: Speaker 3: Obviously they have national data security

00:30:41: Speaker 3: policies and everything else, but because

00:30:42: Speaker 3: they are smaller by such a scale, they also

00:30:45: Speaker 3: just kind of go well, Australia is included,

00:30:48: Speaker 3: right, A lot of the time, talking to them,

00:30:50: Speaker 3: they're like well, as long as it's in New

00:30:52: Speaker 3: Zealand, Australia is probably fine as well.

00:30:54: Speaker 3: You know, and it's just, it's quite

00:30:56: Speaker 3: interesting how, yeah, when you, you know

00:30:59: Speaker 3: Germany, London, you know the big markets,

00:31:01: Speaker 3: you know you, you can just have these

00:31:02: Speaker 3: really strict, rigorous policies around it.

00:31:25: Speaker 1: And then, as you go to the smaller

00:31:26: Speaker 1: countries, it is a little bit like well,

00:31:28: Speaker 1: our preference would be that we were

00:31:30: Speaker 1: running a data center in Christchurch, but

00:31:31: Speaker 1: you know, and you try to get rid of all the

00:31:35: Speaker 1: hardware, right.

00:31:36: Speaker 3: So I'm always referring to USA right now,

00:31:38: Speaker 3: or to the States, but we are talking about

00:31:40: Speaker 3: Australia, of course, there are a lot of

00:31:43: Speaker 3: people here who are still very, very

00:31:45: Speaker 3: dedicated to the on-premise Hyperion and

00:31:47: Speaker 3: there's a lot of good reasons to be.

00:31:50: Speaker 3: I mean the flexibility that that offered,

00:31:51: Speaker 3: even though there was a lot of kind of cost

00:31:52: Speaker 3: associated with having to run your own own

00:31:54: Speaker 3: kind of components, and and probably there

00:31:56: Speaker 3: was a little bit of cost of just the

00:31:58: Speaker 3: exposure to all of the flexibility that you

00:31:59: Speaker 3: did have.

00:32:01: Speaker 3: But uh, yeah, there's a lot of people here

00:32:02: Speaker 3: who would argue very vehemently that they

00:32:04: Speaker 3: they will give up their S base servers, s

00:32:06: Speaker 3: base on premise servers, when you can pry

00:32:07: Speaker 3: it from their cold dead hands.

00:32:09: Speaker 3: But, uh, but I think it's certainly from an

00:32:12: Speaker 3: Oracle perspective.

00:32:13: Speaker 3: I remember and this is now showing my age

00:32:15: Speaker 3: of Kscope coming to Kscope the first years

00:32:18: Speaker 3: and it was like oh, we're releasing

00:32:20: Speaker 3: 11.1.2.4.

00:32:21: Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, that's amazing.

00:32:23: Speaker 3: And here's all the new features.

00:32:24: Speaker 3: Oh, great.

00:32:24: Speaker 3: And it's going to be released at the end of

00:32:26: Speaker 3: the quarter.

00:32:26: Speaker 3: Oh, fantastic.

00:32:27: Speaker 3: And then it's 15 months before you'll get

00:32:30: Speaker 3: either a new client or you'll be able to

00:32:32: Speaker 3: upgrade one of your own ones and it's just

00:32:34: Speaker 3: the the time to actually being able to use.

00:32:36: Speaker 3: It was just so long because all of these

00:32:38: Speaker 3: new features were there, but no one would

00:32:41: Speaker 3: upgrade because it's quite expensive.

00:32:43: Speaker 3: You know there's risks.

00:32:44: Speaker 3: You've got to do all the testing.

00:32:45: Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not.

00:32:46: Speaker 3: You know it's a little bit.

00:32:47: Speaker 3: If it's not broken, you know, don't fix it

00:32:49: Speaker 3: kind of thing.

00:32:50: Speaker 1: Don't't teach the running system right.

00:32:52: Speaker 1: So you don't need the new features as much

00:32:55: Speaker 1: as your running system, right yeah.

00:32:56: Speaker 3: Whereas when they moved to cloud and the

00:32:59: Speaker 3: first few years of it, and now they've kind

00:33:01: Speaker 3: of solved with a low hanging fruit.

00:33:03: Speaker 3: Right now they're just trying to well

00:33:04: Speaker 3: what's next?

00:33:04: Speaker 3: You know, what else can we add, to add to

00:33:06: Speaker 3: the stack?

00:33:06: Speaker 3: You know, you're kind of looking at the

00:33:07: Speaker 3: revenue forecasting and the operational

00:33:09: Speaker 3: modeling and all of these things which

00:33:10: Speaker 3: start to use, like apexes, front ends for

00:33:13: Speaker 3: relational data.

00:33:14: Speaker 3: It's literally because they've solved all

00:33:15: Speaker 3: of the simple stuff.

00:33:16: Speaker 3: But in the first few years it was just so

00:33:19: Speaker 3: refreshing to actually be able to find a

00:33:21: Speaker 3: bug, raise a bug and have it fixed a couple

00:33:23: Speaker 3: of months later, whereas before you'd find

00:33:26: Speaker 3: the bug, raise an SR, get told it was a bug

00:33:28: Speaker 3: and then you find a workaround because it

00:33:30: Speaker 3: was never going to be fixed in a reasonable

00:33:31: Speaker 3: time frame.

00:33:32: Speaker 3: Or even if it was fixed in a reasonable

00:33:35: Speaker 3: time frame, you wouldn't be able to install

00:33:37: Speaker 3: that patch on it to solve it anyway.

00:33:39: Speaker 1: This is in many cases in the Oracle

00:33:41: Speaker 1: environment it's exactly the same.

00:33:43: Speaker 1: So if you were talking about Apex and the

00:33:45: Speaker 1: database beyond it, it's always the same,

00:33:48: Speaker 1: right?

00:33:48: Speaker 1: So if your customers some of them started

00:33:52: Speaker 1: to really move forward and upgrade

00:33:54: Speaker 1: databases on a regular basis, and Apex too.

00:33:57: Speaker 1: But I can remember the times where it was

00:33:59: Speaker 1: exactly what you are telling right now.

00:34:01: Speaker 1: So I don't think that I'm lying when I say

00:34:04: Speaker 1: I have now kind of a view and kind of a

00:34:06: Speaker 1: little bit basic knowledge to maybe

00:34:09: Speaker 1: understand each some of the words that are

00:34:11: Speaker 1: on the agenda regarding EPM talks.

00:34:14: Speaker 1: But I want to go a little bit back to you

00:34:16: Speaker 1: as a person.

00:34:17: Speaker 1: Right so you are contributing so much.

00:34:19: Speaker 1: You already said you are like contributing

00:34:22: Speaker 1: at k-scope.

00:34:23: Speaker 1: You're talking here for several years now,

00:34:25: Speaker 1: right, so you're coming like I don't know

00:34:27: Speaker 1: how many k-scopes did you attend already?

00:34:30: Speaker 1: I was asked this couple of days ago, or?

00:34:31: Speaker 3: yesterday.

00:34:32: Speaker 3: So I think I my first was 2013 or 2012, I

00:34:36: Speaker 3: think, um, I'm not quite sure and I was

00:34:39: Speaker 3: actually got an invite on that first one to

00:34:41: Speaker 3: be on an airspace panel, which was very

00:34:43: Speaker 3: exciting, uh.

00:34:44: Speaker 3: And then the the.

00:34:46: Speaker 3: From that year onwards, I was like, well,

00:34:48: Speaker 3: I've got to get invited back, and the best

00:34:49: Speaker 3: way to get invited back was to present.

00:34:51: Speaker 3: So I've literally presented every year

00:34:53: Speaker 3: since then, including the two years when it

00:34:55: Speaker 3: was shut down for COVID.

00:34:56: Speaker 3: I was getting up at five in the morning to

00:34:58: Speaker 3: do a presentation, which was absolutely

00:35:00: Speaker 3: hilarious for me at the time because, you

00:35:02: Speaker 3: know, it was great, very well set up and

00:35:03: Speaker 3: everything else, that first 2020, the COVID

00:35:06: Speaker 3: year, and because all of the abstracts had

00:35:08: Speaker 3: been approved by that point.

00:35:09: Speaker 3: So they're like, oh, you know, you talk

00:35:10: Speaker 3: about this by that point.

00:35:12: Speaker 3: So they're like, oh, you know, you talk

00:35:13: Speaker 3: about this.

00:35:13: Speaker 3: And I remember sitting there and it was

00:35:14: Speaker 3: 4.30 in the morning and it's the middle of

00:35:15: Speaker 3: winter for me, it's pitch black outside,

00:35:16: Speaker 3: and I'm there and I get this like brief

00:35:17: Speaker 3: introduction.

00:35:18: Speaker 3: They're like, oh yeah, cool, you know,

00:35:19: Speaker 3: we'll start in 10 seconds, I'll do a quick

00:35:21: Speaker 3: introduction and then hand it to you and

00:35:22: Speaker 3: I'm there.

00:35:22: Speaker 3: Great, that's an hour presentation.

00:35:24: Speaker 3: I get 45 minutes into this and you know

00:35:29: Speaker 3: this thing I've just been talking to myself

00:35:32: Speaker 3: for 30 minutes and I wouldn't even know

00:35:34: Speaker 3: because I've got the full screen of of just

00:35:36: Speaker 3: my slides open.

00:35:37: Speaker 3: So that was.

00:35:38: Speaker 3: That was wild, those those few years of

00:35:40: Speaker 3: just trying to do all of these like remote

00:35:42: Speaker 3: webinars and stuff.

00:35:43: Speaker 3: But it did have a lot of opportunities

00:35:45: Speaker 3: because I know I remember a lot of a lot of

00:35:47: Speaker 3: the teams that I was working with kind of

00:35:48: Speaker 3: off and on, like some of the bigger

00:35:49: Speaker 3: infrastructure teams that have a big kind

00:35:52: Speaker 3: of Indian group that were there that

00:35:54: Speaker 3: probably haven't had the opportunities to

00:35:55: Speaker 3: come across to Kscope.

00:35:56: Speaker 3: You know the expense of sending a team out

00:35:58: Speaker 3: of India or Bangalore or anywhere is just,

00:36:01: Speaker 3: you know, astronomical.

00:36:03: Speaker 3: So for them the ability just to get on the

00:36:05: Speaker 3: webinars and some of them you'd have 300,

00:36:08: Speaker 3: 400 people, which is more than I would have

00:36:10: Speaker 3: at Kscope Attending a webinar on it was

00:36:13: Speaker 3: really really quite amazing, but it's never

00:36:14: Speaker 3: the same right.

00:36:15: Speaker 1: So I talked to so many people, including

00:36:17: Speaker 1: the guests at F Soundtape, and asked them

00:36:20: Speaker 1: how did you feel presenting in front of

00:36:22: Speaker 1: your own computer, right?

00:36:23: Speaker 1: So almost everyone said yeah, I was sitting

00:36:26: Speaker 1: there on my normal chair on my table.

00:36:29: Speaker 1: I'm presenting like in front of I don't

00:36:31: Speaker 1: think that there's anybody right.

00:36:37: Speaker 1: So you're just talking to your screen like

00:36:38: Speaker 1: in a meeting.

00:36:38: Speaker 1: You might be distracted by some things

00:36:39: Speaker 1: around you, and after your session you're

00:36:40: Speaker 1: just still there and wait and there's maybe

00:36:43: Speaker 1: one person taking over it's a moderator,

00:36:45: Speaker 1: right or something and you're just sitting

00:36:47: Speaker 1: there and waiting.

00:36:48: Speaker 1: All right, thank you guys.

00:36:49: Speaker 3: And then just close it right, I think, go

00:36:52: Speaker 3: to your day.

00:36:53: Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.

00:36:54: Speaker 1: So if I, I imagine that I talked to 400,

00:36:57: Speaker 1: 500 people, maybe, but my internet may have

00:36:59: Speaker 1: died 10 minutes in.

00:37:00: Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly maybe I just talked to myself

00:37:02: Speaker 1: and it was pretty nice and I, I I mean you

00:37:05: Speaker 1: just could say like I, I pushed on record

00:37:07: Speaker 1: so it's not getting lost, right, but always

00:37:09: Speaker 1: the same, like you're locked off, and it's

00:37:10: Speaker 1: not the same as when you are on the stage,

00:37:12: Speaker 1: like adrenaline in your blood and you're

00:37:14: Speaker 1: you're done with it, you're happy.

00:37:16: Speaker 1: You have a couple of questions.

00:37:18: Speaker 1: Instead of that, you're sitting there just

00:37:20: Speaker 1: guessing that there are people, there might

00:37:21: Speaker 1: be some chat messages, or you just see like

00:37:24: Speaker 1: 500 people leaving and that's it.

00:37:27: Speaker 3: I think the um the thing here we always

00:37:29: Speaker 3: kind of joke about the hallway track of

00:37:30: Speaker 3: Kscope, right, which is which is where you

00:37:32: Speaker 3: learn all of the actual you know the, the

00:37:39: Speaker 3: dirty stuff, you know the stuff that's gone

00:37:40: Speaker 3: really, really wrong, that no one's going

00:37:41: Speaker 3: to put a presentation, no one's going to

00:37:42: Speaker 3: have an actual you know slide deck saying,

00:37:43: Speaker 3: oh yeah, no, we did this and it was a

00:37:43: Speaker 3: catastrophe.

00:37:44: Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, no, the opportunity just to

00:37:45: Speaker 3: get you know senior cons who otherwise, I

00:37:49: Speaker 3: don't know, I, I, you know, feel like I'm

00:37:52: Speaker 3: quite open and I, you know, there's a,

00:37:53: Speaker 3: there's a, there's a handful of us that

00:37:54: Speaker 3: will, you know, reach out on Slack or reach

00:37:56: Speaker 3: out on on email If there's a particular

00:37:57: Speaker 3: problem that we've been beating our head

00:37:59: Speaker 3: against the desk for.

00:38:00: Speaker 3: A big advantage for me is that that, being

00:38:02: Speaker 3: on the other side of the world, I can often

00:38:03: Speaker 3: just like get to nine o'clock at the night

00:38:05: Speaker 3: and just be like this is ridiculous.

00:38:06: Speaker 3: Send an opportunity to talk to.

00:38:19: Speaker 3: They may have their own internal training

00:38:21: Speaker 3: kind of processes set up, but it's not.

00:38:23: Speaker 3: Like.

00:38:24: Speaker 3: You know, all the different partners and

00:38:26: Speaker 3: consultancy firms are really sharing too

00:38:28: Speaker 3: much information, you know, on a day-to-day

00:38:29: Speaker 3: basis, and then we turn up here and we're

00:38:31: Speaker 3: all like, yeah, you know this was all the

00:38:32: Speaker 3: mistakes and everything else, so yeah, it's

00:38:34: Speaker 3: really.

00:38:35: Speaker 3: I love that for this and that was certainly

00:38:38: Speaker 3: the bit that you never got online, like it

00:38:41: Speaker 3: was great, but did anyone actually really

00:38:44: Speaker 3: take it in?

00:38:45: Speaker 3: Were there any questions?

00:38:46: Speaker 3: Did I lose like half the crowd 20 minutes

00:38:49: Speaker 3: in Because they didn't quite understand one

00:38:50: Speaker 3: of the key points, yeah, and didn't have

00:38:53: Speaker 3: the opportunity?

00:38:53: Speaker 1: to stop, I stop.

00:38:53: Speaker 1: You cannot watch into any faces, right so

00:38:55: Speaker 1: to see how they react to what you're doing.

00:38:58: Speaker 1: And even the other side is that it's

00:39:00: Speaker 1: completely natural that the people that are

00:39:02: Speaker 1: sitting in front of the desktop there are

00:39:05: Speaker 1: doing the same as you would do, Like

00:39:06: Speaker 1: they're clicking around.

00:39:07: Speaker 1: They have maybe emails open and something

00:39:10: Speaker 1: right, but it's interesting.

00:39:11: Speaker 3: So I mentioned that we as a company are

00:39:13: Speaker 3: fully remote and certainly one of the

00:39:15: Speaker 3: things that for us and we've delivered a

00:39:17: Speaker 3: number of major projects fully remote, you

00:39:19: Speaker 3: know one or two where we've literally never

00:39:21: Speaker 3: even be able to have someone on site the

00:39:23: Speaker 3: entire time and there are advantages to

00:39:27: Speaker 3: that that you can share a lot more kind of

00:39:28: Speaker 3: deeper technical documentation, you know,

00:39:30: Speaker 3: because you can screen share, you can kind

00:39:32: Speaker 3: of do a bit of a deeper dive into

00:39:33: Speaker 3: components, you can make sure that people

00:39:35: Speaker 3: are there and seeing things.

00:39:36: Speaker 3: But I think in particular with training and

00:39:39: Speaker 3: particularly with like those first

00:39:40: Speaker 3: requirement sessions, I've always the dumb

00:39:43: Speaker 3: question theory right, like if you're not

00:39:45: Speaker 3: in the room, the chance of someone asking a

00:39:47: Speaker 3: dumb question, particularly if they've got

00:39:49: Speaker 3: to type it and everyone else is going to

00:39:50: Speaker 3: read it.

00:39:52: Speaker 3: They're just not going to do it right.

00:39:53: Speaker 3: You don't know if you've lost someone in a

00:39:55: Speaker 3: training session because you don't have the

00:39:57: Speaker 3: opportunity to kind of look at them as that

00:39:58: Speaker 3: kind of.

00:39:59: Speaker 3: They kind of get that half panicked thing.

00:40:01: Speaker 1: Maybe my face I may have when you first

00:40:03: Speaker 1: brought up some words here.

00:40:05: Speaker 3: Exactly.

00:40:06: Speaker 3: You know, when they've done the login

00:40:07: Speaker 3: button and they haven't got to the same

00:40:08: Speaker 3: screen that I have, they're just like do I,

00:40:10: Speaker 3: am I?

00:40:11: Speaker 3: So I think that side of even just delivery

00:40:15: Speaker 3: as a consulting group is still key, because

00:40:19: Speaker 3: I think the hard part, as I said, it's not

00:40:21: Speaker 3: writing the code anymore.

00:40:23: Speaker 3: The code is, you know, hard part's not

00:40:25: Speaker 3: writing the code.

00:40:26: Speaker 3: He says, with 20 years experience in

00:40:27: Speaker 3: writing code, once you've done it for 20

00:40:29: Speaker 3: years, it's not that hard.

00:40:31: Speaker 3: But the functional side, you know, is

00:40:33: Speaker 3: really something that is net new every time.

00:40:36: Speaker 3: Right, because the client they're excited

00:40:38: Speaker 3: about it.

00:40:38: Speaker 3: They can see it, you know.

00:40:39: Speaker 3: Show them SmartView.

00:40:40: Speaker 3: So SmartView is a.

00:40:41: Speaker 3: I'll give you the two.

00:40:42: Speaker 3: Second, SmartView is an Excel add-in and

00:40:45: Speaker 3: for a lot of people they're kind of like oh,

00:40:47: Speaker 3: there's an app, so there's something I log

00:40:49: Speaker 3: into or whatever, and it's all on a screen

00:40:51: Speaker 3: somewhere.

00:40:51: Speaker 3: And then you go, oh, yeah, but like you can

00:40:53: Speaker 3: just open it in SmartView and it's just in

00:40:55: Speaker 3: Excel, and it's just Excel.

00:40:57: Speaker 3: And they're like oh, so it's like it looks

00:40:58: Speaker 3: like Excel.

00:40:59: Speaker 3: And I'm like, no, no, you're in Excel,

00:41:01: Speaker 3: you're just connecting to the database.

00:41:03: Speaker 3: And they're like oh, so it's a copy.

00:41:21: Speaker 3: I'm like, no, no, no, a new account code.

00:41:22: Speaker 3: Someone's got to kind of sit and find the

00:41:23: Speaker 3: spot to put it in and make sure that all

00:41:24: Speaker 3: the VLOOKUPs are right and you're like, oh

00:41:25: Speaker 3: no, that'll just flow through and then you

00:41:28: Speaker 3: can just hit refresh on your sheet and it's

00:41:29: Speaker 3: just going to appear and you never have to

00:41:31: Speaker 3: worry that it's going to add up right,

00:41:33: Speaker 3: because of course it's going to add up

00:41:34: Speaker 3: right, because it has to add up right.

00:41:36: Speaker 3: So that can be this real awakening moment

00:41:39: Speaker 3: and I certainly love that moment with

00:41:42: Speaker 3: clients actually having them realize oh

00:41:45: Speaker 3: actually, this is going to save so much

00:41:47: Speaker 3: time because this is something that I just

00:41:50: Speaker 3: waste time on.

00:41:51: Speaker 1: But at some point it takes much time, right.

00:41:54: Speaker 1: So until this moment happens, it's not like

00:41:57: Speaker 1: rapid prototyping.

00:41:58: Speaker 1: We're getting used to Apex.

00:42:00: Speaker 1: We're showing them what's possible and then

00:42:02: Speaker 1: they instantly see okay, this might be even

00:42:04: Speaker 1: better than Excel, so we can do better than

00:42:07: Speaker 1: that.

00:42:07: Speaker 1: I guess it's a way longer process on your

00:42:10: Speaker 1: end, right.

00:42:11: Speaker 3: Yes and no.

00:42:12: Speaker 3: I mean it's interesting.

00:42:14: Speaker 3: Come to my session immediately after this.

00:42:17: Speaker 3: The hard work is really setting up the

00:42:19: Speaker 3: structures.

00:42:19: Speaker 3: Like, if you've got the structures set up,

00:42:21: Speaker 3: if it's, if the hierarchies and the

00:42:23: Speaker 3: dimensionality and the naming conventions

00:42:25: Speaker 3: are all things that they understand and and

00:42:28: Speaker 3: that feel familiar to them.

00:42:30: Speaker 3: Putting it into a form is then oh, you just

00:42:34: Speaker 3: want to have a subtitle?

00:42:35: Speaker 3: Yeah, no worries.

00:42:35: Speaker 3: Oh, you just.

00:42:36: Speaker 3: You want that bold, all right, great.

00:42:38: Speaker 3: Oh, you want a variance column?

00:42:38: Speaker 3: Yeah, cool, you know it's really rapid to

00:42:41: Speaker 3: do that, okay.

00:42:42: Speaker 3: And even things that are complicated, like

00:42:44: Speaker 3: oh, can I have a year on year percentage

00:42:46: Speaker 3: column, and you're like, sure, you know

00:42:48: Speaker 3: it's just a function and it works dealing

00:42:52: Speaker 3: with the fact that, oh, these are P&L

00:42:53: Speaker 3: accounts, these are balance sheet accounts,

00:42:54: Speaker 3: or I've got some workforce dollars, or or

00:42:56: Speaker 3: I've got dollars per person showing up,

00:42:59: Speaker 3: it's all just going to work in there,

00:43:01: Speaker 3: whereas if you're doing that in Excel my

00:43:04: Speaker 3: year on year variance I've now got to go.

00:43:05: Speaker 3: Oh, if it's P&L, it's this, if it's a

00:43:07: Speaker 3: balance sheet, I need to take the closing

00:43:09: Speaker 3: balance, if it's this, you know.

00:43:10: Speaker 3: So those kinds of things really are, are

00:43:13: Speaker 3: amazing.

00:43:13: Speaker 3: But, that being said, I have sat in a

00:43:14: Speaker 3: couple of Apex demos and gone.

00:43:16: Speaker 3: Yeah, or I could just do it that way.

00:43:17: Speaker 3: That that would actually be like as well.

00:43:19: Speaker 3: And and and, to be honest, I I missed I was

00:43:21: Speaker 3: in a a, a scheduling kind of conflict, but

00:43:26: Speaker 3: there was an operational planning one for

00:43:28: Speaker 3: the new operational planning piece within

00:43:29: Speaker 3: within the EPM stack and, as I understand

00:43:31: Speaker 3: it I could be completely wrong on this and,

00:43:33: Speaker 3: as I understand it, I could be completely

00:43:35: Speaker 3: wrong on this they're either using Apex for

00:43:39: Speaker 3: it or they're going to expose it to Apex

00:43:40: Speaker 3: for the ability to kind of update and build

00:43:41: Speaker 3: operational forms where you can just like,

00:43:42: Speaker 3: oh, I need to add a filter for this or I

00:43:44: Speaker 3: need to add some custom colors to flag the

00:43:47: Speaker 3: things that are there.

00:43:48: Speaker 3: But it's actually now going to be on

00:43:49: Speaker 3: relational data instead of kind of S-based

00:43:51: Speaker 3: data.

00:43:52: Speaker 3: So that will be incredibly appealing

00:43:54: Speaker 3: because all the work that you guys have

00:43:56: Speaker 3: just been ranting on about for the last

00:43:57: Speaker 3: decade and building an entire conference

00:44:00: Speaker 3: wrapped around Apex More than one, yeah,

00:44:03: Speaker 3: but yeah, that value is just so easily

00:44:07: Speaker 3: exposed when you're now looking at other

00:44:09: Speaker 3: data sets which have not operational data.

00:44:11: Speaker 3: So detailed kind of SKU level data has not

00:44:14: Speaker 3: naturally had a good home in EPM tools and

00:44:17: Speaker 3: there's a couple of different reasons for

00:44:18: Speaker 3: that, but the high level reason is that's

00:44:21: Speaker 3: actuals right.

00:44:22: Speaker 3: I don't want to plan per customer, per SKU,

00:44:25: Speaker 3: sale, right, like, I don't know what my

00:44:28: Speaker 3: customers are going to look like in six

00:44:30: Speaker 3: months time, so if I'm planning for them I

00:44:31: Speaker 3: need to kind of aggregate it up and so on.

00:44:38: Speaker 3: So we kind of go well, you know we'll.

00:44:38: Speaker 3: If you're going to do that, then then

00:44:39: Speaker 3: aggregate it at the start and maybe you can

00:44:40: Speaker 3: drill into the detail.

00:44:41: Speaker 3: But you know you don't really have the

00:44:42: Speaker 3: detail.

00:44:42: Speaker 3: But that kind of has meant that we haven't

00:44:43: Speaker 3: been able to do some of the nice things

00:44:44: Speaker 3: like oh, can I filter by some attributes,

00:44:47: Speaker 3: on, on, on, on these, and just, I still

00:45:00: Speaker 3: data to build it out.

00:45:00: Speaker 3: So now having access to that, even if

00:45:01: Speaker 3: you're not using it for planning, but you

00:45:02: Speaker 3: can just expose it for users, you can make

00:45:03: Speaker 3: it available, you know, just kind of brings

00:45:04: Speaker 3: a lot more things into one single kind of

00:45:06: Speaker 3: pane of glass rather than it being cool.

00:45:09: Speaker 3: I'm doing all my planning.

00:45:10: Speaker 3: Hmm, maybe I need to go to a different

00:45:13: Speaker 3: system to run a churn report or a customer

00:45:16: Speaker 3: report, because I don't have that low-level

00:45:19: Speaker 3: detail that's going to allow me to feed in

00:45:21: Speaker 3: my planning.

00:45:21: Speaker 3: So yeah, some of those kind of components

00:45:24: Speaker 3: are really exciting.

00:45:25: Speaker 1: So to be honest, right at some point our

00:45:29: Speaker 1: listeners will understand.

00:45:31: Speaker 1: I will rewind the whole episode a couple of

00:45:33: Speaker 1: times to get really everything you said,

00:45:35: Speaker 1: but I think it is really nice to see that

00:45:36: Speaker 1: at a conference like this.

00:45:37: Speaker 1: I will rewind the whole episode a couple of

00:45:38: Speaker 1: times to get really everything you said,

00:45:45: Speaker 1: but I think it is really nice to see that

00:45:46: Speaker 1: at a conference like this, there are some

00:45:46: Speaker 1: common things we can talk about, right?

00:45:47: Speaker 1: So, from all the different perspectives, I

00:45:48: Speaker 1: don't really know if I make it to your talk

00:45:49: Speaker 1: later on, but maybe you just share your

00:45:52: Speaker 1: stuff afterwards and we can talk then again.

00:45:54: Speaker 1: Share your stuff afterwards and we can talk

00:45:56: Speaker 1: then again.

00:45:57: Speaker 1: So I would like to do something that I do

00:45:58: Speaker 1: or we are doing with each and every guest

00:46:00: Speaker 1: in Devs on Tape.

00:46:01: Speaker 1: I will ask you questions that are not

00:46:03: Speaker 1: especially reaching out to the topics you

00:46:06: Speaker 1: talked about.

00:46:06: Speaker 1: They're basically about you, right?

00:46:08: Speaker 1: So I was one last question I want to add

00:46:11: Speaker 1: before we go to the categories.

00:46:12: Speaker 1: Actually, you are contributing so much,

00:46:15: Speaker 1: right?

00:46:21: Speaker 3: So you entered the ACE program, if I'm

00:46:21: Speaker 3: right, I I was.

00:46:22: Speaker 3: I was an oracle ace.

00:46:22: Speaker 3: I've got to go find jen and apologize for

00:46:23: Speaker 3: few.

00:46:23: Speaker 3: It was an oracle ace and actually covid

00:46:24: Speaker 3: kind of stymied me a little bit, because I

00:46:26: Speaker 3: literally became an oracle ace in in 2019

00:46:29: Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, a lot of the

00:46:30: Speaker 3: avenues to present or anything else kind of

00:46:33: Speaker 3: dried up and it was like well, well, you

00:46:34: Speaker 3: know, and I hate paperwork.

00:46:35: Speaker 3: So I was like, well, you know, I kind of

00:46:37: Speaker 3: felt like a little bit like, oh, I've just

00:46:39: Speaker 3: added a heap of paperwork to do, like now,

00:46:40: Speaker 3: lots of little things because I'm not doing

00:46:42: Speaker 3: the big things anymore, that that that earn

00:46:44: Speaker 3: all the ACE points.

00:46:45: Speaker 3: So do I really want to do that?

00:46:47: Speaker 3: So I kind of like let it lapse and I feel a

00:46:49: Speaker 3: bit bad.

00:46:50: Speaker 3: So I'm an alumni.

00:46:52: Speaker 1: It was almost the same with me, right so,

00:46:54: Speaker 1: but I I was having my first child and I

00:46:56: Speaker 1: said, okay, this year will not happen

00:46:58: Speaker 1: anything.

00:46:58: Speaker 1: So I will gladly say thank you very much,

00:47:01: Speaker 1: but I would not reach the points and I will

00:47:03: Speaker 1: be no exception.

00:47:04: Speaker 1: I will go go into the alumni state and yeah,

00:47:07: Speaker 1: basically right after I I got alumni, froze

00:47:10: Speaker 1: points were frozen because of covid, right

00:47:12: Speaker 1: so, and everyone was staying at the same

00:47:14: Speaker 1: same pace and and and waited, just to,

00:47:16: Speaker 1: waited to be over and and restart again

00:47:18: Speaker 1: with conferences, exactly the time I needed

00:47:20: Speaker 1: to take off for caring for my family, right,

00:47:23: Speaker 1: and yeah, so I was alumni, but you're still

00:47:26: Speaker 1: alumni and you're gonna be back, right, I'm

00:47:29: Speaker 1: feeling guilty enough that I should go back

00:47:31: Speaker 1: and uh and and start researching how to to

00:47:33: Speaker 1: get back into it.

00:47:34: Speaker 1: You should definitely do so.

00:47:35: Speaker 1: I think it's not that big of a thing to

00:47:38: Speaker 1: come back.

00:47:38: Speaker 1: It's just reaching the points being

00:47:41: Speaker 1: nominated, I guess, and then you will be

00:47:43: Speaker 1: back again in the ACE program.

00:47:45: Speaker 1: I would love to see that.

00:47:46: Speaker 1: So we see each other way of my, I guess.

00:47:48: Speaker 1: Yeah, so, yeah, coming to the categories,

00:47:51: Speaker 1: so we have three different kinds of

00:47:52: Speaker 1: categories, hypothetically, in private and

00:47:55: Speaker 1: consumption, and we will start with the

00:47:56: Speaker 1: first category, hypothetically.

00:47:59: Speaker 1: If you could undo one technological trend

00:48:01: Speaker 1: in the recent years, what would it be and

00:48:02: Speaker 1: please do not use any terms I cannot say,

00:48:05: Speaker 1: because I don't really can get proof of

00:48:07: Speaker 1: that if we should get rid of this?

00:48:09: Speaker 3: Did you say undo, undo?

00:48:11: Speaker 3: Look to be brutally honest, and I say this

00:48:14: Speaker 3: I'm not a social media person, yeah, but oh

00:48:17: Speaker 3: my God, if you could just remove some of

00:48:19: Speaker 3: that like it is, it is just as a piece.

00:48:22: Speaker 3: It is just so addictive, like I.

00:48:24: Speaker 3: I don't, as I said, I'm not real, I'm not

00:48:26: Speaker 3: on Facebook.

00:48:28: Speaker 3: I have Instagram, I think you know.

00:48:31: Speaker 3: But I had TikTok briefly, and it was just

00:48:34: Speaker 3: so addictive.

00:48:34: Speaker 3: It was just so easy just to sit there and

00:48:36: Speaker 3: just flick through it.

00:48:37: Speaker 3: I'm like this is awful.

00:48:40: Speaker 3: I've done nothing for 25 minutes except sit

00:48:42: Speaker 3: here and flick through things and like what,

00:48:45: Speaker 3: what has this actually added to to to where

00:48:47: Speaker 3: I am?

00:48:48: Speaker 3: And in particular, it's like it's so like

00:48:50: Speaker 3: appealing to the primal side of your of

00:48:53: Speaker 3: your brain, rather than the actual

00:48:54: Speaker 3: intellectual side of your brain.

00:48:56: Speaker 3: You know you're not getting things on.

00:48:57: Speaker 3: You know philosophy and so on.

00:48:59: Speaker 3: You're getting like oh, look at this

00:49:00: Speaker 3: amazing football goal or this, you know

00:49:03: Speaker 3: amazing high school volleyball set from

00:49:05: Speaker 3: Arkansas, you know he was like oh, you know,

00:49:08: Speaker 3: great, that's great, you know, and it's 30

00:49:10: Speaker 3: seconds waste of time.

00:49:11: Speaker 3: Yeah, that that for me is probably on the

00:49:14: Speaker 3: list.

00:49:14: Speaker 3: I don't know, I think it's probably would

00:49:20: Speaker 3: always come back is probably the worst

00:49:21: Speaker 3: thing to say about it.

00:49:21: Speaker 3: But uh, yeah, no, that that had never

00:49:22: Speaker 3: happened.

00:49:22: Speaker 3: I think the world would be a better place.

00:49:24: Speaker 1: I could, just I could just cut together the

00:49:28: Speaker 1: apps on tape episodes where exactly this

00:49:31: Speaker 1: answer was told.

00:49:32: Speaker 1: It was like somebody were really long

00:49:34: Speaker 1: thinking about what they want to get rid of

00:49:36: Speaker 1: or undo and if it would be possible.

00:49:39: Speaker 1: But really at least 90% said exactly what

00:49:42: Speaker 1: you said and even the introduction how you

00:49:45: Speaker 1: said.

00:49:45: Speaker 1: It is always the same.

00:49:47: Speaker 3: So I'm going to put something like this

00:49:49: Speaker 3: together yeah, you post it on YouTube short

00:49:51: Speaker 3: or something right Like, yeah, it'd be on

00:49:52: Speaker 3: TikTok.

00:50:01: Speaker 1: And that's exactly the reason why I'm

00:50:02: Speaker 1: always, yeah, say sorry to everyone,

00:50:03: Speaker 1: because I I'm introducing every guest here

00:50:04: Speaker 1: at the same way, like we're doing video now

00:50:05: Speaker 1: for those shots you know real shots tiktok

00:50:06: Speaker 1: stuff to to get the people involved in a

00:50:07: Speaker 1: podcast.

00:50:08: Speaker 1: I know them.

00:50:09: Speaker 1: And then right after, like in the end of

00:50:11: Speaker 1: the podcast, they're saying I hate those

00:50:13: Speaker 1: things and I have to say you will appear on

00:50:15: Speaker 1: them on the platforms.

00:50:17: Speaker 1: But I, I still say and it's something I

00:50:19: Speaker 1: already said in an episode today this will

00:50:22: Speaker 1: not be split screen, but it's kind of a

00:50:23: Speaker 1: race.

00:50:24: Speaker 1: Okay, right, right, yeah Okay.

00:50:25: Speaker 1: Keep the people longer than 30 seconds in

00:50:27: Speaker 1: my reels.

00:50:27: Speaker 1: So right, awesome.

00:50:29: Speaker 1: So we, the people, are really comparable

00:50:32: Speaker 1: right now, and if we get any superpower in

00:50:35: Speaker 1: the communities like EPM and Database and

00:50:38: Speaker 1: Apex and so on, we definitely shut down

00:50:41: Speaker 1: those services because everyone has the

00:50:43: Speaker 1: same thinking All right, let's move over to

00:50:46: Speaker 1: the next category.

00:50:47: Speaker 1: In private.

00:50:48: Speaker 1: Are you satisfied with your work-life

00:50:50: Speaker 1: balance currently?

00:50:51: Speaker 1: So?

00:50:52: Speaker 3: I have possibly one of the greatest setups

00:50:54: Speaker 3: we as an organization.

00:50:56: Speaker 3: I've been a consultant forever, so you know

00:50:58: Speaker 3: done a lot of long hours.

00:51:00: Speaker 3: I don't.

00:51:01: Speaker 3: There's probably not a lot of those, really,

00:51:04: Speaker 3: that I look back on now and I'm like, oh,

00:51:05: Speaker 3: that was terrible, that was a waste of time.

00:51:07: Speaker 3: I'm so annoyed that I didn't do it, because

00:51:08: Speaker 3: I was also one of those people that would

00:51:09: Speaker 3: like wake up excited on saturday morning

00:51:11: Speaker 3: because I go, oh, I had this thing that I

00:51:13: Speaker 3: was doing last week and I'm like I now want

00:51:16: Speaker 3: to write a blog post on it, right, and I

00:51:17: Speaker 3: would enjoy that side of it.

00:51:19: Speaker 3: So I often did overwork when I was younger.

00:51:24: Speaker 3: So when we started the organization, when I

00:51:25: Speaker 3: started the company, we went, well, okay,

00:51:27: Speaker 3: we're not doing that.

00:51:28: Speaker 3: That's not the approach.

00:51:30: Speaker 3: So we do as an organization and a lot of

00:51:33: Speaker 3: this is driven by certainly some of the

00:51:34: Speaker 3: other directors that I have but it's

00:51:36: Speaker 3: something that we're very much all bought

00:51:37: Speaker 3: in on.

00:51:38: Speaker 3: We do 40 hour weeks.

00:51:40: Speaker 3: We have an additional day off per month.

00:51:43: Speaker 3: Our aim as an organization is to get to

00:51:45: Speaker 3: four day weeks, which is quite difficult to

00:51:48: Speaker 3: do if you're also supporting customers.

00:51:50: Speaker 3: So we kind of want to work towards what

00:51:52: Speaker 3: that looks like.

00:51:58: Speaker 3: We have expectations that you know, if

00:51:59: Speaker 3: people are online at six o'clock, they're

00:52:00: Speaker 3: going to get told off for being online at

00:52:01: Speaker 3: six o'clock and told that it can wait until

00:52:02: Speaker 3: the next morning.

00:52:02: Speaker 3: Everyone is terrible.

00:52:03: Speaker 3: My entire team is terrible.

00:52:05: Speaker 3: I hope you're listening to this, because at

00:52:06: Speaker 3: six o'clock when someone has a problem,

00:52:07: Speaker 3: someone will be like, oh, is anyone still

00:52:09: Speaker 3: online?

00:52:10: Speaker 3: And four people will jump on and go, yeah,

00:52:11: Speaker 3: no, I can help you sort it out really

00:52:13: Speaker 3: quickly.

00:52:14: Speaker 3: So we've got a really good culture around

00:52:16: Speaker 3: that.

00:52:16: Speaker 3: But certainly from our perspective, it's

00:52:19: Speaker 3: work is there because it's something you

00:52:20: Speaker 3: enjoy, because it adds value.

00:52:22: Speaker 3: Because of these things, it is not what

00:52:24: Speaker 3: makes up your life.

00:52:25: Speaker 3: We've got a lot of people, a lot of people,

00:52:27: Speaker 3: that are coming in part time.

00:52:29: Speaker 3: So, in particular, we've got a number of

00:52:32: Speaker 3: women in tech who have kind of left you

00:52:34: Speaker 3: know, in finance in particular, left to

00:52:36: Speaker 3: have children, and then they, they, they

00:52:38: Speaker 3: want to come back and they can't come back

00:52:40: Speaker 3: full time.

00:52:41: Speaker 3: That's, that's almost impossible.

00:52:42: Speaker 3: But even three days a week nine to five is

00:52:44: Speaker 3: really hard.

00:52:45: Speaker 3: So can I do four days a week, you know, 10

00:52:48: Speaker 3: to three kind of thing.

00:52:50: Speaker 3: So trying to support that in that space and

00:52:54: Speaker 3: then I think as a as a, as a kind of a

00:52:55: Speaker 3: company generally, we're also trying to

00:52:56: Speaker 3: support that in that space.

00:52:57: Speaker 3: And then I think as a company generally,

00:52:59: Speaker 3: we're also trying to move away from T&M as

00:53:02: Speaker 3: a output of delivery, so time and material

00:53:04: Speaker 3: and really focus on right.

00:53:06: Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about the value

00:53:07: Speaker 3: proposition of the product.

00:53:08: Speaker 3: Let's work out how any efficiencies we can

00:53:10: Speaker 3: make on delivery we're doing.

00:53:13: Speaker 3: We want to shave all the time out of the

00:53:14: Speaker 3: technical side down to its absolute bare

00:53:16: Speaker 3: bones and spend the time with the client,

00:53:19: Speaker 3: talking to them, extending the functional

00:53:20: Speaker 3: side.

00:53:21: Speaker 3: We drive continuous improvement programs

00:53:23: Speaker 3: rather than trying to front load a heap of

00:53:25: Speaker 3: stuff and do it all in a project.

00:53:27: Speaker 3: It's you're going to burn out as a client

00:53:29: Speaker 3: if we load you up with this.

00:53:31: Speaker 3: So let's support you to actually do this

00:53:33: Speaker 3: journey over 12 months, because a lot, lot

00:53:35: Speaker 3: of the time I love my NetSuite clients.

00:53:37: Speaker 3: They're amazing, but a lot of them have

00:53:38: Speaker 3: done a NetSuite implementation and then

00:53:40: Speaker 3: either trying to do a planning

00:53:41: Speaker 3: implementation, an ARCs implementation and

00:53:43: Speaker 3: a narrative implementation at the same time,

00:53:46: Speaker 3: and it's the same three people that are

00:53:48: Speaker 3: doing it.

00:53:48: Speaker 3: You're just like you're going to burn out.

00:53:50: Speaker 3: You're not going to enjoy this, you're not

00:53:52: Speaker 3: going to get the value from it and if any

00:53:55: Speaker 3: of you leave because of that, the entire

00:53:57: Speaker 3: project's off the table.

00:53:59: Speaker 3: So let's do this as a staged approach where

00:54:01: Speaker 3: we're really supporting you and working you

00:54:04: Speaker 3: through that, so that you know if clients

00:54:07: Speaker 3: are online at 10 o'clock at night because

00:54:08: Speaker 3: something's not working, then something has

00:54:10: Speaker 3: gone horrifically wrong in how we've done

00:54:12: Speaker 3: our implementation approach, how we've done

00:54:13: Speaker 3: our testing, how we've done our

00:54:14: Speaker 3: implementation approach, how we've done our

00:54:15: Speaker 3: testing, how we've done our training.

00:54:16: Speaker 1: So is it common in Australia that you aim

00:54:18: Speaker 1: for like four days work?

00:54:20: Speaker 1: So I was just, yeah, reading some stuff

00:54:23: Speaker 1: during the last years.

00:54:24: Speaker 1: I guess that a couple of countries or

00:54:26: Speaker 1: states maybe are aiming for that.

00:54:29: Speaker 3: So I was just guessing if it's an approach

00:54:31: Speaker 3: that is common in Australia or if it's just

00:54:34: Speaker 3: your opinion and those of your directors

00:54:36: Speaker 3: there are some organizations that are kind

00:54:39: Speaker 3: of starting down the path so doing a nine

00:54:42: Speaker 3: day compressed fortnight, so still kind of

00:54:44: Speaker 3: doing like 38 and a half hours a week, but

00:54:46: Speaker 3: like kind of doing it over nine days

00:54:47: Speaker 3: instead of over 10 days.

00:54:49: Speaker 3: And then there are some organizations that

00:54:51: Speaker 3: are also probably driving like smaller

00:54:52: Speaker 3: organizations, that are trying to drive

00:54:54: Speaker 3: down to that, that four day week.

00:54:56: Speaker 3: But it's certainly not common and certainly

00:54:58: Speaker 3: in the consulting space it is not common.

00:55:00: Speaker 3: We, we still, I think it's better than it

00:55:03: Speaker 3: was, but I I certainly do know of, you know,

00:55:11: Speaker 3: some of the bigger consultancies and some

00:55:11: Speaker 3: of the bigger kind of um, you know, junior

00:55:12: Speaker 3: cons who are still, you know, doing 50, 60

00:55:14: Speaker 3: hour weeks as a common in australia and

00:55:16: Speaker 3: that's just.

00:55:17: Speaker 3: You know, it's not the kind of organization

00:55:18: Speaker 3: we want because it's just it just like

00:55:21: Speaker 3: what's the point?

00:55:22: Speaker 1: right, like that's just so unenjoyable as a

00:55:24: Speaker 1: as an but it's very generous from you and

00:55:27: Speaker 1: your directors that you are having an eye

00:55:29: Speaker 1: on your people, right that I I cannot

00:55:32: Speaker 1: imagine that there's a part of the

00:55:35: Speaker 1: economics that is leading is leading to

00:55:37: Speaker 1: having more hours and more things done and

00:55:40: Speaker 1: being more into working more than IT is.

00:55:44: Speaker 1: But maybe it's just bias because I'm inside

00:55:46: Speaker 1: this economics part.

00:55:48: Speaker 1: But yeah, let's move on.

00:55:50: Speaker 1: So you're very satisfied with your

00:55:52: Speaker 1: work-life balance and you try to get your

00:55:54: Speaker 1: people into the same position, all right.

00:55:57: Speaker 1: Last question from the last category

00:55:58: Speaker 1: consumption how do you deal personally with

00:56:02: Speaker 1: the growing flood of information via

00:56:03: Speaker 1: various channels?

00:56:04: Speaker 1: So you already ranted about Reels and

00:56:07: Speaker 1: YouTube Shorts and so on.

00:56:08: Speaker 1: But if you talk about serious news, news,

00:56:11: Speaker 1: informations and maybe social media stuff

00:56:13: Speaker 1: but the better ones how do you deal with it?

00:56:19: Speaker 3: So I'll answer the serious side and the

00:56:21: Speaker 3: unserious side of it, I think, for me.

00:56:24: Speaker 3: Obviously I do consume a fair bit of news.

00:56:27: Speaker 3: I'm quite a quick reader, so I will sit

00:56:31: Speaker 3: down and read a lot of articles in about 20

00:56:34: Speaker 3: minutes and then 20 minutes and then sigh

00:56:36: Speaker 3: and, you know, close it all down.

00:56:38: Speaker 3: I think the there are aspects of, I suppose,

00:56:41: Speaker 3: the bubble that you can get in on that that

00:56:43: Speaker 3: that do concern me.

00:56:44: Speaker 3: So I do occasionally and it's hard to do

00:56:47: Speaker 3: try to get outside my own bubble and read

00:56:49: Speaker 3: different points of view and and it is

00:56:52: Speaker 3: certainly a challenge to do that, no matter

00:56:55: Speaker 3: how you're consuming media, it's hard to do

00:56:57: Speaker 3: that Right, even even if you're just going

00:56:59: Speaker 3: and buying the newspaper, unless you're

00:57:00: Speaker 3: gonna spend a lot of money and buy four of

00:57:01: Speaker 3: them, you know, and then waste, you know, a

00:57:03: Speaker 3: lot of time using one one on the same OS.

00:57:06: Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and, and I think online now

00:57:09: Speaker 3: a lot of it's kind of been guided down a

00:57:10: Speaker 3: path of you know, you've read this article,

00:57:12: Speaker 3: you might like this article, kind of thing.

00:57:14: Speaker 3: So I think there's a lot of that.

00:57:15: Speaker 3: That that's certainly challenging.

00:57:17: Speaker 3: I do try to consume as much and keep an

00:57:20: Speaker 3: open mind as possible on these things, but,

00:57:23: Speaker 3: yeah, it's certainly something that is

00:57:24: Speaker 3: quite difficult to do and it's very easy to

00:57:27: Speaker 3: either get insular and oh, I don't want to

00:57:29: Speaker 3: have to think about that as a problem, so

00:57:30: Speaker 3: I'm not going to look at it or I'm just

00:57:33: Speaker 3: going to read about it from the lens and

00:57:34: Speaker 3: the bubble that I am sitting in and

00:57:35: Speaker 3: therefore I have no perspective of the

00:57:37: Speaker 3: other side of particular conversations.

00:57:40: Speaker 3: That being said, one of the other sides and

00:57:42: Speaker 3: I I bitched and moaned earlier on about,

00:57:44: Speaker 3: about social media, but one of the things I

00:57:45: Speaker 3: used to play computer games but it was like

00:57:48: Speaker 3: it was all things like like logistics

00:57:49: Speaker 3: planning, incredibly detailed, you know,

00:57:52: Speaker 3: kind of kind of games, and I just don't

00:57:54: Speaker 3: have the time for them anymore.

00:57:56: Speaker 3: So now I watch a lot of like.

00:57:57: Speaker 3: I've got a couple of like YouTube creators

00:57:59: Speaker 3: that play these like long form games and

00:58:01: Speaker 3: they do the things that I want to do.

00:58:02: Speaker 3: So I watch that at double speed and it's

00:58:04: Speaker 3: kind of like I get the enjoyment of having

00:58:06: Speaker 3: done the same thing but I don't actually

00:58:07: Speaker 3: have to spend the 41 hours that it's done

00:58:09: Speaker 3: for there.

00:58:09: Speaker 3: So I'm kind of like compressing my own

00:58:11: Speaker 3: entertainment doubt into a, into a smaller

00:58:14: Speaker 3: kind of more consumable, bite-sized thing.

00:58:16: Speaker 1: This is this is really quite funny to hear

00:58:18: Speaker 1: that.

00:58:21: Speaker 1: Not playing games anymore, except because

00:58:22: Speaker 1: it's no time so you can just watch somebody

00:58:23: Speaker 1: else do it and double off time.

00:58:25: Speaker 1: It's quite a thing, yeah.

00:58:27: Speaker 3: That's.

00:58:27: Speaker 3: I had that reflection a couple of days.

00:58:28: Speaker 3: I mean, my wife hates it because I'll have

00:58:30: Speaker 3: it on at double speed and obviously you you

00:58:32: Speaker 3: gotta focus a little bit if it's double

00:58:34: Speaker 3: speed or triple speed or yeah, but that's

00:58:35: Speaker 3: fine.

00:58:36: Speaker 3: But if anyone else has kind of got it on in

00:58:37: Speaker 3: the background, it sounds like chipmunks

00:58:39: Speaker 3: talking away.

00:58:39: Speaker 3: She's like what are you watching?

00:58:42: Speaker 1: I mean, there are people watching like

00:58:43: Speaker 1: twitch streams, and then you can leave it

00:58:46: Speaker 1: like on a on a second screen, and you can

00:58:49: Speaker 1: see it in real time it's got it.

00:58:51: Speaker 3: it's got to be double speed, or or.

00:58:53: Speaker 1: I lose attention, I'm compressing my things

00:58:57: Speaker 1: down, so very nice answer, so I can live

00:59:01: Speaker 1: with that really good.

00:59:02: Speaker 1: So I'm going to close this session right

00:59:06: Speaker 1: now.

00:59:06: Speaker 1: I'm repeating that like a couple of times

00:59:08: Speaker 1: this evening so I see if I didn't get

00:59:10: Speaker 1: anything or no, it was a wrong

00:59:12: Speaker 1: pronunciation.

00:59:13: Speaker 1: If I got everything right and I have to

00:59:16: Speaker 1: research about that, our listeners might

00:59:18: Speaker 1: hear it's getting quite loud in here.

00:59:21: Speaker 3: I think it's drinks o'clock or something.

00:59:23: Speaker 1: It is drinks o'clock, it's just the hall is

00:59:24: Speaker 1: filling up around us, so I'm very, very

00:59:28: Speaker 1: thankful that you attended my session here

00:59:30: Speaker 1: and brought me in the way or in the

00:59:32: Speaker 1: ecosystem of EPM a little bit.

00:59:35: Speaker 1: I'm scratching the surface, but I'm very

00:59:37: Speaker 1: happy that I saw a different perspective

00:59:38: Speaker 1: and that you joined me.

00:59:40: Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you very much.

00:59:41: Speaker 1: Thank you very much for the invitation.

00:59:42: Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure See you later, and all

00:59:45: Speaker 1: the best for your presentation right after

00:59:47: Speaker 1: this session.

00:59:48: Speaker 1: I think you have 11 minutes left 11 minutes.

00:59:50: Speaker 3: Fantastic, I see my co-presenters out there

00:59:52: Speaker 3: kind of looking a little nervous, so I

00:59:54: Speaker 3: might go out and see you.

00:59:55: Speaker 1: Then leave now, have a great day and have a

00:59:57: Speaker 1: great conference.

00:59:58: Speaker 1: Thanks very much, cheers.

01:00:10: Speaker 1: Thank you.

01:00:16: Speaker 1: This episode is powered by Hyatt, your

01:00:19: Speaker 1: smart companion for digital business

01:00:20: Speaker 1: solutions, and Biodetec's gracious

01:00:22: Speaker 1: invitations and support.

01:00:24: Speaker 1: Thank you for having me at the conference

01:00:25: Speaker 1: and fueling this journey.