1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,600 Today on our Tech for Business podcast, we're joined again by Jason, our virtual CIO and 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,640 Kyle, our president and CEO. 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,240 This is part two to our commercial workspace discussion. 4 00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:20,320 Previously we talked to Jason about his journey into the industry, Vlad Anvil, Kyle kind of 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,800 coming out of the woodwork and joining CIT with us. 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:29,520 So instead of an icebreaker, I just wanted to do a little check-in and kind of see how 7 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,960 you're doing, Jason, a couple months down the road, how things are going at CIT for 8 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:34,960 you. 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:35,960 I love it. 10 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:42,920 I am every day humbled by the cool people I work with, having a team that is as passionate 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:48,120 about doing the kind of work that we're all doing here and that I get to bring it to this 12 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:49,920 industry that I've worked in for a long time. 13 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,920 This, we're coming into a very big month. 14 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,960 There are a number of tools that we use to support visual design in an industry, but 15 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,040 the folks at Configura put on a very large user conference that has really become a place 16 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:06,880 for the community at large to gather and share ideas and we're going to be sponsoring and 17 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:08,000 participating in that event. 18 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,080 I'm giving some one-hour presentations to kind of help dealer designers understand how 19 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:18,080 to work with and sort of rebuild a relationship if they don't have a functional one with IT 20 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,520 and how to use these tools effectively and kind of speak our language to empower them 21 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:23,240 long-term. 22 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,480 And as part of that, something that again is very near and dear to me is to see me holding 23 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:27,520 a pen up here. 24 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:29,640 We are doing a targeted giveaway. 25 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,760 We want to make sure that we are really, genuinely, this is something that I built during my 26 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,440 plan to end build time that was really kind of a love letter to designers that was an 27 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:42,520 affordable, super fast, something that was designed to look good in their showroom and 28 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:43,520 function well. 29 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:47,120 We're going to give it away at the conference to a designer, not a vendor, not a software 30 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:48,640 developer, not another person. 31 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,880 This is something for designers to really show our appreciation for the support you've 32 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:57,600 given CIT and me as we begin this venture is supporting you. 33 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:02,680 So we're also going to be sharing free access to our rendering accelerator solution. 34 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:06,160 That's something that CIT invested in and we have scaled to provide as a service to 35 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:07,160 our clients. 36 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:08,160 I'm super excited. 37 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:09,960 There's no obligation to put a credit card in to use it. 38 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:15,400 I just want people to really see and experience how this solution that was built to solve 39 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,080 a problem a very designer called me crying one night and I wanted to solve. 40 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:23,120 I want to share this with them and honestly, hopefully they will see the value in it and 41 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:24,520 perhaps decide to do business with us. 42 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:29,080 But I'm super excited about this conference, about sharing and really getting out there 43 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,280 and sharing what CIT is and what we're doing. 44 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,400 Being around for 30 years as a tech company in this space is certainly not common and 45 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:41,360 I think they're going to, I hope they will be happy that we're there working with them 46 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:42,360 going forward. 47 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:43,360 For sure. 48 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:44,360 Yes. 49 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:48,360 And for those who are just listening and not watching, I do have to say that this computer 50 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:49,360 looks beautiful. 51 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:55,480 I wasn't sure what it was going to look like, but Jason working with designers, he built 52 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:57,120 this for a designer. 53 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:58,240 It looks amazing. 54 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:00,360 So great job on that. 55 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,360 Steve Jobs would be proud enough. 56 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:04,360 Yes. 57 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:05,360 Yes. 58 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:09,280 I may cite Steve Jobs on my LinkedIn profile, but I don't pretend to be anywhere near him. 59 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,200 Steve Jobs was brilliant at taking a great idea that maybe wasn't well technically implemented 60 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:18,560 or explained from an end user experience perspective and did just that. 61 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,400 So I appreciate that point of view and I do model out a bit. 62 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:26,040 But yeah, the story here, just to give a little backstory, if you are watching and I'm doing 63 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,440 a little theater of the mind here, I'm going to cheat and say, just Google the word fractal 64 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:31,440 north. 65 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,640 So the computer case I chose, so we are up in the frigid Midwestern, the Northern Hemisphere 66 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:36,800 where we get really cold winter. 67 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:41,520 So it is a snow white computer case with a wood hardwood front on it that was designed 68 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:42,800 in Sweden. 69 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:46,320 And the conference that we're attending was actually, it is a Swedish software company. 70 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:50,720 So I felt, A, this looks really good going with the short aesthetic that people who use 71 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:55,080 this technology tend to be designers, but also there's some nods to both our climate 72 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:59,680 and being in the Midwest and in Minnesota, our Swedish heritage as well as the partners 73 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,440 that we're working with overseas on the solution. 74 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:03,440 So yeah. 75 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:05,840 And it's powerful inside. 76 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:06,840 It is. 77 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:07,840 It is. 78 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,080 Yeah, it was designed not just to do everything they need to do today, but everything they 79 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,840 need to do for at least the next three years, including run, twin motion, do 4k renderings. 80 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,080 You know, they, if they can dream it, they can really do it with this computer. 81 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,480 So it was designed to empower them. 82 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,440 Ideally, you know, my philosophies get tech out of their way and be an invisible partner. 83 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,320 And this is exactly, this is a manifestation of that philosophy. 84 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:29,320 So I love it. 85 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:30,320 I love it. 86 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,760 And you know, talking about this computer and just in general, you touched a little 87 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:41,040 bit on those specific challenges that designers are facing and kind of in the curious, like 88 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:46,720 I said, this is part two of our episode with commercial workspaces. 89 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:51,920 I'm curious as to what challenges designers are facing today. 90 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:56,200 And you can, you know, talk kind of broadly or a little bit more specifically about how 91 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,480 you're approaching those challenges and solving those challenges. 92 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:01,480 Yeah. 93 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,600 And, you know, I have the great fortune of having both a good friend and an industry 94 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:09,400 peer who has a great podcast in which she reviews challenges designers are facing on 95 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:11,080 a regular basis. 96 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:15,760 So the design pop podcast free plug Alexandra, who's also been great at helping me connect 97 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:17,400 with some of our dealership friends. 98 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:21,680 But it is there are a number of issues that designers face and they're probably laughing 99 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:28,080 at me because, you know, I would say number one is they have, they never have enough time. 100 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,600 And so when I tend to focus on solutioning, it is how do I save them time or make them 101 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,600 time or make them things are doing more efficient. 102 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:36,880 There's a ton of stress in this industry. 103 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:43,680 There is one of the biggest pivots in the last 10 years post COVID even we'll say is 104 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:46,240 the way people work changed fundamentally. 105 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:50,040 We read all the articles to ad nauseam, you know, the return work concept drives me a 106 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,040 little bit crazy because I didn't stop working. 107 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:53,480 Mostly you didn't stop working. 108 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:54,640 We just did it in a different place. 109 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:59,080 And so the workplace and workspace has just changed and they've had to really figure 110 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:03,400 out how to address that using the traditional skills methods and best practices they had 111 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:08,240 learned originally and also develop new intellectual property and ideas and concepts as they're 112 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:09,240 going. 113 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,280 And in many cases, they're doing more with less. 114 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:16,560 It's just in people have a greater demand for visual artifacts that help them make those 115 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,360 those decisions about what they're buying and to be comfortable through the buying process 116 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:22,560 and the ideation process. 117 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:24,320 What is it that you're proposing for my workspace? 118 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:25,320 How does it look? 119 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:30,720 And is there a way I can share in advance some of what you're proposing with my end users, 120 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:35,600 some of that's using just visual renderings that are static or 360 year renderings you 121 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,840 can look at on a large screen or even virtual reality, augmented reality experiences. 122 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:44,480 How do we embrace all of these technologies and and non technologies really just the soft 123 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:48,200 experience of all of this stuff is ultimately about helping people make decisions to ultimately 124 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,720 do business with that dealership so that they have income that can go into paying those 125 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:54,240 designers, keep doing what they love to do. 126 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:59,960 So it's helping dealers remain or become a remain financially solvent. 127 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:02,280 There's some very challenging times. 128 00:07:02,280 --> 00:07:05,880 The basic demands you'll be high underneath the hood even below where the designers live 129 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:11,600 is the basic infrastructure that they live on and the new sort of expanded obligations 130 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:17,800 that these dealerships have to some of their clients to be more transparent about how they're 131 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:23,040 managing those it assets, the security that they're using, you know, that they have cyber 132 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:27,280 insurance that all the things they need to have so that it is a partner to them is being 133 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:31,320 transparent and balancing that with the need to be innovative. 134 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:36,360 You know, the for example, a lot of our designers out there need to have or have needed to have 135 00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:40,320 local admin rights on their computers to use the mix of tools they have. 136 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,160 I'm not calling out anyone partner a lot of different partners that required it at some 137 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:44,160 point in time. 138 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:47,160 And a lot of them have done a good job of trying to very slowly get there. 139 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:48,520 They have parties that have to balance too. 140 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:53,320 But one thing I found and I love working with with Nate here at CIT. 141 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,200 There's a new product that we're often called Threat Locker, which the what I heard about 142 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:01,240 it and he said, it allows you to have admin rights essentially at an application level, 143 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,440 but not across the entire computer. 144 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:06,360 Somebody's running out, which eliminates a lot of those security risks. 145 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:08,080 And I just explained that terribly. 146 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:10,400 He's probably falling over to chairing up here. 147 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,800 The concept is I can reduce the risk factor that a designer presents. 148 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:18,000 And this for the designer's point of view means it's less risky for them just to do 149 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,000 day to day work. 150 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,160 They're not intentionally going out and doing things that are risky. 151 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:22,560 They're trying to do their jobs. 152 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,080 Our job is to protect them in a way that it is not creepy and weird and overbearing. 153 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,120 Like, hey, why don't you need to click this button and call me to fix it? 154 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:34,280 It's just it's a great solution that I believe has a great user experience concept tie to 155 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:39,840 it that allows them to do their work while we do our job to secure them behind the scenes. 156 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:45,280 So again, that's the but yeah, they're they're dealing with an environment where our our industry 157 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:46,280 is under attack. 158 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,200 You know, a steel case was attacked. 159 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:50,200 You read that in the news. 160 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,720 I'm not scooping anybody vertical spy chain attack that went, you know, jumping industries 161 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:57,160 from the medical industry where they were being attacked during covid and the healthcare 162 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:01,600 industry over to two manufacturing partners, supply chain partners, etc. 163 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,120 And other manufacturers have been targeted the same way. 164 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:09,600 So really helping them do what they need to do and be innovative with new tools and new 165 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:15,040 technologies that weren't really prolific and in use three or four years ago and continue 166 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,480 to do work faster and at a higher level of quality than ever before. 167 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:20,120 So yeah, no challenges at all. 168 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:21,760 Everything is going great. 169 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:26,560 And honestly, and balancing work life, I think if I'm going to go down another rabbit hole 170 00:09:26,560 --> 00:09:29,920 here, you know, covid taught us all a little bit, or at least those of us who had the opportunity 171 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:34,520 to potentially stay home, maybe spending a little more time with our families and, you 172 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:39,360 know, look at the reasons we get up and work and stress and do all the things. 173 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:45,000 And how can we as technologists empower them to maintain that balance? 174 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,200 Well still, when they're at work, they can work as fast as they need to. 175 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,280 But when they're often unplugged, they can step back, you know, the renderings can run 176 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,480 the background and not interrupt everything they're doing and not be failing. 177 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:55,800 They can go attend their kids birthday party. 178 00:09:55,800 --> 00:10:00,240 You know, and that's a very fulfilling part of what I get to do, because frankly, I get 179 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:01,240 to do that those things. 180 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:02,240 I get to spend time with my kids. 181 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:08,480 I get to be a Boy Scout or Scouts BSA leader for both girls and boys. 182 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,600 And like this weekend, go out in the woods and live under a tarp in the rain and do those 183 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,960 kind of things with my family because I find those things interesting and exciting. 184 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,720 And I want to allow other people to do the same with their families. 185 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:20,960 So long answer, short question. 186 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:23,480 I love it. 187 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:28,000 You did kind of touch a little bit on that security and I was going to mention when this 188 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,640 podcast comes out, we're right on the cusp of the Cybersecurity Awareness Month. 189 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,280 And there'll be a lot of information coming out about, you know, what you can do. 190 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:43,520 And is there anything, you know, designers day to day or the technology that they're 191 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:48,960 using or the products that they're creating, are there any, does that change your approach 192 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:54,120 to cybersecurity with commercial workspaces? 193 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:55,920 Or is it just kind of the same across the board? 194 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:00,200 And I don't know, maybe Kyle can kind of chime in on this as well. 195 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,640 Yeah, I can, I can lead in all adjacent rabbit. 196 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:08,600 But it's a general approach. 197 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,000 It's all about risk mitigation side of it. 198 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:16,680 So the approach side on cybersecurity, at least from our perspective side of it, and 199 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:23,360 it's been something that's been spoken of quite frequently now is the preventative side 200 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,960 of the cybersecurity and dealing with tools. 201 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,920 Jason mentioned Threat Locker, that's one of them. 202 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:34,560 One of these tools that you can put in, do a level of automation, apply a framework to 203 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:42,040 these things that all reduce the level of risk that an organization has to greatly reduce 204 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:48,800 the likelihood of a security incident and hopefully never a breach. 205 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:56,120 You know, as those things evolve through there, it's a very good investment to make and it's 206 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:57,920 just a level of automation. 207 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:02,600 And it's something we do with our managed services where the synergy with Jason and the 208 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:07,240 customers that he serves in this vertical side of it, that's where there's a ton of 209 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:14,840 synergy because it brings in a level of automation and a framework that can be applied and allow 210 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:20,560 them, as Jason mentioned, to do their job without having to go deep into learning all 211 00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:27,160 these things, the other sides of it, to be able to come alongside, apply the framework, 212 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:32,880 give them, you know, access to experts like Nate, who we mentioned in those sides that 213 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:38,200 if there is a question or a concern, you have experts you can bring in that specialize in 214 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:42,480 these areas to answer the question and you keep servicing your customers and doing what 215 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:43,480 you do well. 216 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:46,960 And that's where a lot of the synergy comes in. 217 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,680 Jason, anything you want to add to that? 218 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:52,320 Well, I'd say this actually plays very close to one of the philosophies that I've always 219 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:57,040 brought to this business, which is if I'm being a good consultant, I'm working my way 220 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:58,280 out of a job. 221 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:02,840 And the very first job I want to work myself out of with most of my clients is as a consultant, 222 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:07,680 is I don't want to be trying to figure out how we can avoid you getting blown up effectively 223 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:11,520 by a cyber hacker, terrorist, whatever you want to call them, right? 224 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:16,960 I would rather you be able to focus on and I could focus on helping you do new innovative 225 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:21,480 things because to me, the future of a commercial workspace dealership as they call themselves 226 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,600 traditionally, and I think that's sort of an antiquated term because it implies you 227 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:26,440 just sell furniture to markup. 228 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:28,920 And what these businesses do is much bigger than that. 229 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:34,480 They are about sort of experimenting with and understanding workspace concepts that empower 230 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:39,160 people to do their best work in a variety of businesses and applications. 231 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:42,320 And no part of that is, is my email secure? 232 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:43,560 It shouldn't be, right? 233 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:44,560 Should I be worried about those things? 234 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:47,320 Like when I'm driving my car, my wife just bought a brand new car. 235 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:52,240 Like I was trying to live on my 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck forever and it finally died 236 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,480 and I had to buy not one, but two new cars in a week. 237 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,920 And what was jarring to me is I got in the car and it's got all these crazy reminders 238 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,440 and things that keep me from doing dumb things I probably could have done on my older car. 239 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,240 But I realized it's allowing me to focus on, it's taking care of some of the automation 240 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,760 around me while I'm able to focus on driving and being safer in the vehicle. 241 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:12,680 And I think that has a parallel to what we're dealing with here, which is there are a lot 242 00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:16,720 of new things that are demanding the time and attention of our designers, of the business 243 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:17,720 leaders to support them. 244 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:22,040 I mean, I want people to understand that I have very much hyper focused on supporting 245 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,640 designers because of the role and the importance that they play across the business process 246 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,320 of delivering what clients need from these businesses. 247 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:33,080 But the table sakes for doing this, I had to be a great technologist, not understand 248 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:37,760 how to apply technology across the board to be an IT director, to be a CIO, to be all 249 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:38,840 those things. 250 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:41,200 That was table sakes to doing the innovation stuff. 251 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:45,960 And to me, if I could say that's a great and important job, but it's not core to those 252 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:46,960 businesses. 253 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:48,480 Like they're not in the business of selling technology, right? 254 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:50,440 They're in the business of selling workspace concepts. 255 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:54,600 So if I can get that out of their way and that includes their cybersecurity practice, 256 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,520 the thing about cybersecurity is in many cases, if you're going to get cyber insurance, for 257 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,640 example, you have to go through an audit of some sort and demonstrate that you're doing 258 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:07,520 things to prevent getting hacked or attacked and generally being efficient with your resources. 259 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:11,800 So the act of getting just cyber insurance, this kind of hyper focus on that one thing 260 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:15,960 for a minute often requires you to do a lot of things upstream as well. 261 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,520 And I would say in many cases, the same applies for me working with designers. 262 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,720 I may go into a dealership saying, I want to help you innovate and get, have a great 263 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:23,440 design experience. 264 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,280 But what I realize is they don't have the underlying network discipline. 265 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:28,240 They don't have a good place to store files. 266 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:32,160 They have a lot of other deficiencies that we have to correct first because I need to 267 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:37,280 get the day to day IT sort of operational stuff off of their plate so we can focus on 268 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:42,480 innovation because to me, helping them deliver their own solving their own business problems 269 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,840 can translate into value for their customers because they're expected to be tip of the 270 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:50,920 spear to be learning and experimenting on themselves with workspace concepts, including 271 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:52,640 some technology applications. 272 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,880 But those technology applications require everything out of the hood be running smoothly 273 00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:58,520 and perfectly and safely. 274 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:02,720 And that's all part of having a great cybersecurity strategy, about having a great IT operations 275 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:08,080 and management strategy, whether it is something that is run by an internal resource, an IT 276 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:12,280 director, manager, CIO, or an external third party, like something we could do for one 277 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:15,240 of our customers, or a hybrid approach. 278 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,680 In many cases, I will supplement, even if a client has a managed service provider like 279 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:23,880 we are, I can still connect to that client say, hey, I'm going to provide accountability 280 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:28,440 and a separation of duties between them and you so that you have an agnostic person who 281 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:32,520 is looking at what you're doing and providing a different viewpoints that is necessarily 282 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,440 driven by trying to sell you stuff is driven by you getting the right things and having 283 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:36,760 the right outcomes. 284 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:40,480 So I can focus on delivering business value. 285 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,400 Certainly we'd love it if you'd work with us and with CIT, but that's not the end game. 286 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:45,960 Because to be honest, I think that's how you win trust. 287 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:51,320 I've learned that in this industry, that you build trust by being there to help solve 288 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,960 problems and then down the road, if it turns into other business, great. 289 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:56,840 If you build it, they will come. 290 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,880 So do business ethically, do business well, help clients do the right things to protect 291 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:02,760 them from some of these threats. 292 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:06,240 I hire a designer because I don't know how to do this stuff. 293 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:07,240 They are wizards. 294 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:11,800 They have the, it was kind of like sometimes IT people are people who don't work in this 295 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:12,800 trade. 296 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,480 We have all this crazy knowledge that other people don't understand and I depend on that 297 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:16,480 expertise. 298 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:21,080 And so if I can empower them and get, avoid them having a bad cybersecurity incident, 299 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:24,080 you know, I think it all, it all ties together in some way. 300 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,000 That was a really long answer. 301 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,760 The cliche about, I'm going to ask a tech guy, what time is it going to tell me how 302 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:31,760 to build the watch, in this case, anyway. 303 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,920 Oh man, I love it. 304 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,000 So we talked a little bit about challenges. 305 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,080 We talked a little bit about just day to day and cybersecurity. 306 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:46,320 I'm interested in sort of what you see coming down the pipeline, like what is the future 307 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:47,840 of this commercial workspace? 308 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,320 We're talking five, 10 years from now. 309 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,280 Where do you see things going? 310 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:53,280 Yeah. 311 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,840 Oh, I have, I have a couple of opinions here and I think a couple of things. 312 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:01,800 Well, so I'm going to say AI because everybody says AI and the cloud and I dash something. 313 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:03,480 No, and I think this is the thing. 314 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,080 People are, are sometimes scared of what AI could bring. 315 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:11,760 We deal with chairs that from a configuration standpoint can have a billion variables, one 316 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:13,000 chair. 317 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:18,640 There may be hundreds of thousands of components in a build that all have a million variables 318 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,040 associated with them. 319 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:26,280 What AI can help and empower designers to do over time is limit, like as, as AI learns, 320 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:30,160 learn to sort of limit the choices and curate what they're seeing so those designers can 321 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:31,160 do their best work. 322 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:37,320 And I think AI driven decision making to be, to help be a better consultant, which is what 323 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:41,080 I believe designers, I think their titles may actually change over time, much like a 324 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:45,120 systems engineer or sales consultant in, in, you know, in our business work, that role 325 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:48,160 is going to change and has been changing for a long time. 326 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:54,400 And I think AI can help them by really empowering them to, to make those choices more quickly 327 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:56,560 and give better qualified recommendations. 328 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,880 The scary part, you know, so I'm going to use the, I was having a conversation about 329 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:03,320 something and all of a sudden up on my phone pops an ad for that thing. 330 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:07,440 Now, I never typed in anything about this, but I know that phone is listening, right? 331 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:12,040 So just to show my parents, but the funny thing is, I, there are such deep sort of profiles 332 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:13,320 on all of us that exist. 333 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,960 And one thing I think that while it sounds a little bit big brotherish, if we can utilize 334 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:17,960 that for good, right? 335 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,040 So I understand if I know I'm going to be presenting to somebody and I have some idea 336 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:26,080 what they like from a textural standpoint, from a color standpoint, you know, the, the 337 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,240 Facebooks, the Metas, the Googles of the world have been creating these giant kind of weird 338 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:31,640 profiles about all of us. 339 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:35,160 What if we could use some of that information to help drive what we're showing to people 340 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,160 to again, make sure that we're really giving them a custom experience. 341 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:40,320 I mean, use the bad for good, if you will, right? 342 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:46,160 So I think using data that's available to help drive better recommendations to people 343 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,520 is one big change. 344 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:52,160 I think this industry is also supported by a lot. 345 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,080 Well, do things. 346 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:55,080 Consolidation is happening. 347 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:59,280 If you've watched, again, the dealerships of traditional your, a lot of them are family 348 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:00,280 owned. 349 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:04,680 There were smaller businesses, you know, they're gobbling each other up right now. 350 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,400 There was a huge consolidation between Herman Miller and Noel that is now Miller Noel. 351 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:13,320 There continues to be purchases of small independent manufacturers by larger manufacturers. 352 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,360 Smaller dealers are getting gobbled up by bigger dealerships as maybe, you know, members 353 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:19,060 of the family are retiring and they aren't really sure what they're going to do. 354 00:20:19,060 --> 00:20:22,000 And those manufacturers want to retain market share in certain areas. 355 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:23,840 They're providing a solidation. 356 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:29,240 That is leading to a more larger scale clients in terms of what the dealerships that we work 357 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:34,440 with potentially are and a greater demand in terms of that technology, complication 358 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,880 of what I'm looking for here, the sophistication, the ability to work at enterprise level, not 359 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:39,960 just a small business level. 360 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:42,280 So I think that's a positive thing. 361 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:45,760 I think be able to take enterprise thinking and bring it down to scale where we can use 362 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:49,480 it both at small and large manufacturing dealerships is a good thing for the industry. 363 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:54,040 And I think it will continue to drive, I don't think many traditional, what I would, I hate 364 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,800 to call them sort of the old school way of doing technology where technology almost holds 365 00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:00,080 the business kind of hostage. 366 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:01,440 They're not going to share information with you. 367 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:03,320 They're doing things their way. 368 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:06,280 You know, IT, the budget is sort of a whole that you just pour money into kind of like 369 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,640 owning a boat on the water and you get to enjoy once in a while. 370 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:11,160 It's not going to be that way for long. 371 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:12,920 Just the demand for accountability will change that. 372 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:16,640 And I really think that is going to be to the benefit of everyone who works in this industry. 373 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:18,720 Better tools, better process, better security. 374 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:24,600 I do think the industry has a lot of sort of software companies and partnerships have 375 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,080 grown up out of necessity, right? 376 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,760 Kind of in the same way that small businesses, maybe they've sort of found a little tiny 377 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,400 niche or specialty that they focus on. 378 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:37,360 And what I find is that a lot of data format, like the data that flows through this industry 379 00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:41,600 sometimes ends up in weird proprietary formats that doesn't really follow what, say, if you 380 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:45,320 worked with an architecture and design firm and they work in Reddit, for example, we ultimately 381 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:49,480 require that you also change that file and change those, you know, we're not dealing 382 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,440 in common file formats or single source of information. 383 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:57,880 And I think as this industry grows, as dealerships themselves and manufacturers become more sophisticated, 384 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:02,400 they will demand that we think differently about how that data moves, that instead of 385 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:07,960 a designer creating a PDF artifact or pricing based on catalog data that's out of date because 386 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,600 somebody didn't run updates, that simply will no longer exist. 387 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:15,840 We'll treat the specification for space and the pricing more like a code repository where 388 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,400 it's a flow of information that draws from other sources in real time. 389 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:21,480 And we can kind of keep track of that. 390 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,680 So because I think that'll give the customers a better experience, I think it'll help those 391 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:28,200 dealerships and all their partners from end to end in the supply chain do a better job 392 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:34,000 managing the products and services to ensure a great experience for that end customer. 393 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,120 I think that's all part of what's going to come. 394 00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:40,480 I think the industry has generally been underserved because it has a very, very limited investment 395 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,200 in technology as a percentage of revenue typically. 396 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,800 I mean, it's usually less than 1% of a dealership revenue is invested in technology. 397 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:49,880 And that's on the very bottom of the scale. 398 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:54,440 If you look at construction industry, 3%, if you look at healthcare or technology, it's 399 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:55,440 as much as 10%. 400 00:22:55,440 --> 00:23:00,400 So I think overall business will demand some changes and that's a positive thing because 401 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:04,840 there's so much that we can do with just a little bit more kind of money resource, mind 402 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:09,840 share and again, getting the legacy thinking out of our way so we can really innovate and 403 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:15,680 really do crazy good things with visualization and fulfillment and just making sure that 404 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:21,040 our clients, we're empowering them to do better work by doing the same for ourselves. 405 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:25,720 So to me, these designers and these businesses will become centers of innovation and those 406 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,240 that don't will probably become purchased. 407 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:32,640 They'll get bought up by other dealerships, businesses, whatever else it is. 408 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:34,360 But I don't say that disparagingly. 409 00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:37,040 I just think it's time. 410 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:38,040 The way, yeah. 411 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,720 And I'm super excited to support them because I think it's the people I know who've really 412 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,520 been in this industry that are looking to do great things all feel the same way that 413 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:51,400 it's time for us to grow up and realize the potential that this industry has to help shape 414 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,200 the future of work for everybody. 415 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,200 I'm going to trademark next to that. 416 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:56,200 I'm going to tagline somewhere. 417 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:57,200 Yeah, I'll put a little thing. 418 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:02,200 After I say we're trying to work and then cross my eyes. 419 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:03,200 Yes, for sure. 420 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:04,200 Oh man. 421 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:09,080 There's so many things I wish I could just deep dive into that you said and might have 422 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:14,080 to be for another podcast in the future. 423 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:15,760 You know, I have a lot of words. 424 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:16,760 Don't worry. 425 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,760 I can just keep tapping the keg right here. 426 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:19,760 Are you sure? 427 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:20,760 I love it. 428 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:21,760 My head is pretty big. 429 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:22,760 I'm going to put your quote up for time. 430 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:24,760 Yeah, I think you got at least another half hour of Jason. 431 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:26,640 Oh, well, in that case, hang on. 432 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:33,440 I should speed up so I can fit 45 minutes into a half an hour of time. 433 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:35,440 Now we'll do it in part three, I think. 434 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:36,440 Yeah, for sure. 435 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:37,440 For sure. 436 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:38,440 I love it. 437 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,440 Well, thank you. 438 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,440 Thank you so much, Jason and Kyle for joining us today. 439 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:46,440 Jason, can you remind us? 440 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,920 I know that this is coming out right before October and you're going to a conference. 441 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:52,920 Can you remind us a little bit about that conference? 442 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:53,920 Yes. 443 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:54,920 Give a little plug. 444 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:55,920 That's right. 445 00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:02,880 It is the CET experience in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona at the Fairmont Princess Hotel in 446 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:03,880 Scottsdale. 447 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:08,240 So, it is, again, it is a place for us to gather as an industry in many ways. 448 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:09,680 There are different conferences. 449 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,920 One is called Neoconish Cago that if you're in the industry you're familiar with. 450 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:19,360 This is very much focused on designers, interior designers, and one specific tool they use, 451 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:23,160 CET designer, but really in many ways it's for us to get together and talk about industry 452 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:24,880 problems and how to solve them. 453 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,800 And again, I'm both honored and excited to get to go and talk to designers. 454 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:29,800 I've missed it. 455 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,000 I've missed being in person because obviously the pandemic has changed a lot of the ways 456 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,080 that we travel and out of necessity and out of learning. 457 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,560 We've experimented with virtual conferences and such, but there really is nothing like 458 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:44,680 just getting together, shaking hands, learning together, probably being too tired by the 459 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,680 time my presentation rolls around on Wednesday, but that's okay. 460 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,160 And yeah, so I'll be out there the eighth through the 11th or so. 461 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,160 And if you're in the Phoenix market and you're a dealership and would like me to stop by 462 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,640 and visit you, I've set aside some time to do just that. 463 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:58,960 So, I'm super excited to be out there. 464 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:02,920 I'm hoping they'll record one of the sessions so I can perhaps post it up here on our social 465 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,560 media site if you want to hear me talking about my recommendations for dealerships in 466 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:10,960 a 45 minute dealer friendly technology discussion. 467 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:16,280 And yeah, I'm again, I'm both honored and excited and there's a really great giveaway 468 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:21,200 and I just, I may even sign the inside of it to fully lean into the Steve Jobs wannabe. 469 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:26,160 Yeah, this is no Apple one, but certainly it'll have something fun inside. 470 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,680 I love it. 471 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:28,680 Yeah, for sure. 472 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:29,680 That's so great. 473 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:34,920 And if you're listening to this and it's past our October, I will make sure in the description 474 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:39,400 to have our commercial workspace website that you can head out to and learn a little bit 475 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,000 more about Jason and what he's offering. 476 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,680 So, thank you again. 477 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:46,040 If you enjoyed this podcast, please like, subscribe. 478 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,880 If you have a question or topic you would like to discuss, reach out to us at info at 479 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:58,800 cat-net.com or head out to our website cat-net.com slash podcast and we'll be back next week 480 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,680 with an all new episode. 481 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:02,680 Thank you. 482 00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:21,960 Bye, everybody.