Speaker 1:
Welcome to the JMARK Business Innovation Technology Experience.
Todd:
Thank you everybody for joining us today, hopefully you are getting notifications and logging in, that’s super excitement and sorry, I have a bug that is chasing me. But today we’re going to talk about a pretty interesting topic. Dax and I were talking a little bit about this the other day as we were preparing for an email and some other stuff, and there’s so much changing in the world. At the beginning of COVID-19 we started talking about a better normal, we started talking about meeting people, meeting our customers where they are, and we have seen just an absolute massive change in the world.
Todd:
The people that I know that generally love to go out and love to go places, oftentimes they’re saying now that they’d rather just stay home. I used to enjoy going out to the store every now and then just to be somewhere different because I work from home all the time. And now I get all my groceries delivered, and that’s just a massive change. So what are some of different changes you guys have seen in your lives and also in the news and everything? I’m sure we’ve all seen them and we’ll take the conversation from there.
Dax:
Yeah, I think Todd, that’s the things I separ from the discussion you and I were having that you talked about… I’ve read the same articles about the same effects that it’s not just your perception of people around us, people you know, it actually is happening. That is one thing where businesses are struggling with as this idea of reopening has been happening throughout the summer and moving into now we’re in the fall, there has been a spike where people did get back out initially when businesses started reopening, but then I fell off as the pandemic continued, and people did settle into what you’re talking about, where they’re looking to get their services in another way rather than going out.
Dax:
Whether it’s across the board, whether it is having groceries delivered, whether it’s doing their banking or other services, that type of thing, consulting things online. Whether it’s doctor visits that they’re doing virtually, instead of in-person, whether it’s getting food delivered from restaurants, that all of these things that customer behavior really has changed. I think about it and I think a lot of what it is, is it’s accelerated. These were changes that were already possible for businesses to do these types of things before COVID-19, this is something for a long time that customers have been poking around at the idea of getting grocery deliveries and that kind of stuff. But what happened in 2020 was we just saw an immediate acceleration of the demand for these things and of the need for businesses to suddenly be ready to provide their services and their goods in another way.
Todd:
Yeah. I think that a lot of business owners and executives and a lot of people in general, were in this wait and see mode for many months. It’s going to go back to normal. Things will be the same, maybe a little bit different, but I don’t think anybody imagined the just massive transformation that is occurring. Many hotel chains are working on changing their hotels to a more what they call the work… what’s that word, it’s like a place where people can go and work. Like a temporary workspace. Going back to retail, you have this massive push to online sale then to marketplaces such as Amazon. Oftentimes it’s you can still buy tons stuff from Amazon before this year, but it seemed like it was easier just to go price shop online.
Todd:
Go to Walmart, go to Best Buy, go to different places, to look for something. And now you have these marketplaces where… I mean, Walmart has their own marketplace where people can sell through Walmart and so does Amazon. And so it’s easier just to go to the central marketplace and almost everybody can do it. It’s almost turned into somewhat of an eBay situation where people are buying stuff and then selling it on Amazon. And that transformation is just so big and it is so critical to… or it’s technology that is doing it all. It’s technology that’s playing the pivotal role in the transformation. So it’s a big change.
Dax:
Yeah. And that’s, I think it’s important to note that it’s a big opportunity not just a change. I personally, this was another thing you and I had talked about Todd, that over the weekend, I can’t remember if it was this weekend or the weekend previous, but I had realized that I’ve been home spending so much time in my house, in the same places, and I was like, “I want to redecorate some things.” Because I’ve been seeing the same views for all of these months, it’s time for a change. So I went on my dam Amazon and I ended up buying from individual retailers and these were some small businesses.
Dax:
One of the things, I bought some housed plants from a small family owned farm business that had this opportunity and was able to reach me. These guys were in somewhere, I want to say it was Kentucky or somewhere like that, but I’m not even remotely in the real world able to buy from these people. But now I could. Suddenly, I am in their markets because I was able to reach them through this marketplace that you’re talking about. And that’s a huge opportunity.
Todd:
Yeah. And the other thing about it that I was just thinking about is the changes to how everything has gone online has totally shifted the return process. So for example, in a typical brick and mortar store, you have to have people to take returns. it is more profitable for you to get returns because you have to pay those employees that are there and you have infrastructure and you have all these things. Well, you buy something from Amazon and it’s messed up. Most likely, they’re going to say, “Throw it away, keep it, do what you want.” I ordered two 50 inch duffle bags for some things I was doing, and they sent me eight. Eight. And I contacted them because they were 50 bucks each and they we’re on sale half price.
Todd:
So I contacted them and they’re like, “Do what you want with them. Don’t worry about it.” Think what that means for technology. Technology is creating so much profit, so much efficiency that Amazon can afford to not even worry about it. I was talking to my brother the other day, he works for UPS and he said there are hundreds of [SEMIs 00:09:19], full of return items sitting down in somewhere UPS somewhere. And there’s nothing they can do with them. I found out recently that you can go on to Craigslist and buy a trailer full of Amazon return items, and it’s a surprise what you get. But that’s more profitable for them because of technology, which is astounding to think about.
Kristina:
That’s crazy. Switching gears a little bit, I read the statistic. It says of companies that haven’t started a digital transformation, 59% fear it might be too late. So I wanted to get your take on that and how you feel about that.
Todd:
Yeah. I think it depends on the type of business you’re in. There’s going to be some changes in the oil and gas industry, but I think that’ll be more on supply chain and other things. You’re going to see massive changes in retail. If you are in a brick and mortar store, then I definitely agree with that. Entertainment venues, that kind of thing is going to go through massive changes. People are just getting more comfortable being around themselves, I guess, being around others so it’s like watch a movie in your house and that’s not good. But then you have doctor’s offices and you have hospitality. Hospitality’s seen big changes right now.
Todd:
And so there’s tons of this digital transformation that is happening. And it goes back to what we were talking about just a little bit ago and that so many people, I think we’re just in this wait and see mode instead of we got to get on this because when we get out of this, it’s going to be a totally different landscape. And I think like now people are… I’m hoping it appears to me people are getting beyond that, wait and see into holy crap, we gotta shift and adjust. And so I agree with that and it’s definitely been an acceleration of a year for sure.
Dax:
Yeah. I would say to me, I hate the idea that somebody might have the defeatist attitude that it’s too late, because it’s only too late if you’re just going to follow and do exactly what somebody else is doing and just sort of this nebulous idea of digital transformation. But if you come up with a strategy and you sit down and decide, how are we going to take the opportunities that technology can give us and serve our customers better, provide our services in a new way. How are we going to do this? Then it’s not too late and the idea should be not to continue to wait. I think sometimes when people think it’s too late, they fall back into the, “We’ll all wait and see what the next thing is.” But you’re not going to be ready for the next, next thing, unless you start now and start making these changes and start creating the strategy that’s going to help you make these changes and take advantage of them.
Todd:
Yeah. And that’s the thing that… We’ve talked about this for years. But it’s coming to a head now in how important it is. But for years, we’ve talked about how people, when they’re looking at solving strategic problems, they rarely are looking at technology as the first step in that discussion. It’s often around process and around people. And technology is kind of people process technology and gets put on the end. But now we’re seeing what should be the opposite. I mean, it’s really, you have to focus on the technology. You have to ask yourself, “What am I missing that could solve this problem?” Or “What kinds of problems are there out there that could be solved by technology?” I mean, we have the communication and collaborations symposium coming up in a few weeks.
Todd:
And we’re going to be talking about communication collaboration, all these different things that solve problems that aren’t directly related to everything going on right now, but they are very related. It’s about internal connectedness as a company. It’s about culture, it’s about communication and it’s about maintaining everything that’s moving forward. And those are strategic problems that JMARK got ahead of. So we looked forward and went in the future if this were to happen, how could we maintain our communication and collaboration? And these are the kinds of tools that that people need.
Todd:
But just going back to what you said, it’s so important to look at technology from the standpoint of what can this do to solve my problem. And then also to… We only know what we know, it’s not an insult to anybody. If there was a medical issue, I’m not an expert. If there was a farming issue, gardening, I’m not an expert. But that’s why we talk about you do what you do best, bring in someone like JMARK that truly understands your industry. That truly understands how technology works in it to help solve those problems. Because oftentimes you don’t even know what questions to ask.
Dax:
Yeah, Todd, you took the words out of my mouth. That’s what I was waiting to say is that finding a partner that can help you figure out these technology answers and figure out the questions, and one that’s going to help you think these way, Todd, you mentioned looking at technology and how can technology solve this problem. And that I think is extremely important mindset to have in this day and age. And it’s interesting because that’s not my personal mindset. I am one of these people that I usually fall back into this is my traditional way of doing things. This is how I’ve always done things. This is where my comfort zone is. And my mind doesn’t go to finding technology solutions.
Dax:
But working with JMARK and being surrounded by people who think that way, has changed my own way of thinking. And I have started looking that way. And that’s the advantage of having in my case, it’s coworkers and other people who are passionate about technology and knowledgeable and who spend all of their time immersed and learning about the new technologies and learning about what’s coming. So a business can do that too. Your MSP, you need to find a partner that’s going to help you think that. It’s going to help you into that process and be that partner for you that’s going to help you achieve that.
Todd:
And it’s not always about technology. It’s more than just technology, it’s technology strategy. A lot of people have internal IT staff and they are great with technology, but they’re in their own little world. Like we were just talking about, you have to have the technology strategy because otherwise it’s not about blinking lights. It’s not about software always, there’re different ways to do it.
Kristina:
Yeah. When you talk about finding a partner who’s going to help with this strategy, when I was doing a little bit of research for this, I found this stat that says fewer than 30% of a company’s technology vendors are actively involved in their digital transformations, which is kind of shocking to me.
Todd:
I don’t actually find that shocking because this goes back to… I mean, we just created this buyer’s guide that we’re releasing in the next week or so. And the reason we did it is because it’s so stinking frustrating to buy IT services. We’ve gone up head to head with competitors that we know do not do the same level of services that we do, whether it’s patch management or monitoring or technology strategy. And they put the buzzwords in their marketing literature and convince people that that’s actually what they do, and they don’t. I mean, there is a massive difference between what the industry calls a vCIO services or Virtual Chief Information Officer services and true strategic information services.
Todd:
A lot of companies offer, they call it strategy, they call it a QBR, Quarterly Business Review, but very few are doing anything, but looking at the past couple of months and talking about ways to improve, it’s shameful for our industry that there are so many people that claim to be providing all this technologies services and strategy services but they can’t even handle patch management.
Kristina:
Yeah. I think that’s an important takeaway that if the people you’re surrounded by the people that are giving you your answers about technology aren’t helping you with that strategy, don’t be satisfied with that. If you need and want that help, and you should, because this can help your business with digital transformation and being more competitive, being in the right spots moving forward, don’t be satisfied if you’re not getting those answers, find somebody who’s going to give you those answers. I think that a lesson that I would point somebody at JMARK. I would point to you Todd, that have taught me that where I know there are times where I’d just be like, “Well, I didn’t really see a technology answer to this problem.”
Kristina:
And you’re unsatisfied. And you’re like, “No, there’s so many out there that is figured this out. I’m going to find that person.” And inevitably there too later, you’ll come to me and be like, “Here’s the answer that you didn’t find.” And I’ve got to be grown and be like, “You’re right. There is somebody out there figuring out an answer to nearly everything with technology. And you got to have that drive and you need a partner that’s going to help you have the drive to solve those problems.”
Todd:
Yeah. The interesting thing too is, oftentimes the answers are coming from your customers depending on where they are. I was thinking about when I go visit my parents, there’s this road where it’s not really a 90 degree to turn right onto it. It’s kind of been this weird angle and the pavement doesn’t have a nice turn lane. And what has happened is over the course of the years, people have made their own turn lane in the dirt. And it is a nice, big, because it’s the natural way that people turn. It’s not like doing this massive almost like a U-turn of sorts on this weird angle. And I bring that back to everything we’re going through right now, because if you look out there, there’s things like… We’ve seen these tablets to replace notebooks where you can write on them, they feel like paper, the pen feels like a real pen and you write on it, you can erase it, you can start over and you can save it to a Cloud application.
Todd:
We see these changes happening in schools. I mean, schools are going through massive transformation right now. And teachers are trained to teach in a classroom. They’re not trained in school to teach in this manner of virtual and or classroom. And there is a huge change in keeping people’s attention on a zoom call, even on the student side. I mean we have very young kids now using Chromebooks and using tablets and using other things for their education because of all of the changes and that’s not going to go away, it’s not going to be, “Hey, everybody turn your computers and your tablets and pull out your book.” And people would be like, “A book? This is heavy. Why do I need the book?”
Todd:
I remember my son in stinking, I don’t know, fourth grade. I mean, he had this adult-sized backpack full of all these stinking books, and now it’s just a laptop. So you have to look at your customers, the people that you serve and see what they’re doing. Are they creating their own path? Are they creating their own work around? Are they going somewhere else because of a certain feature or a certain functionality? Is there something about your product or your services or your model that is turning people away? Those are the kinds of things that we really have to ask. And I think sometimes the best judges is to ask some of your favorite clients.
Dax:
And the flip side of that, what are the services that maybe you’re providing that your customers are really tuned into, that they really like, that you might be taken for granted. They might be something that is not your main focus, and you don’t even realize that this is one of the things that your customers love about you, or the way you do things. I think that idea of really taking that hard look goes both ways.
Kristina:
[crosstalk 00:25:20] I’m stat girl today. So this is very interesting. I think this topic in general is interesting because I’m finding a lot of stuff that I’m like, “Whoa.” So 65% of companies are positive about their ability to adapt to technological disruption over the next three years. That seems really high to me. I wonder, do you think that a lot of those people are maybe overconfident and then how can they know like these people’s think, how can they know, or can they know?Todd:
I mean to an extent, you can see the road ahead of you in many areas, but you always can have a big rock dump on your head like COVID-19 that will change everything. But I don’t know the answer to that. I think business owners in general and I want to be careful saying this, but businesses in general are highly confident in a strategy. That’s just how they’re wired. But without the right partners, without the right data, without the right technology in place, it’s not possible. It’s easy to say we can do such and such, but what’s the strategy to get there. And sometimes that strategy is evolutionary for an organization. It changes.
Dax:
I think about the idea of being prepared and understanding the path to get somewhere. And there’s that, but there’s also understanding the most efficient way to take that path. And I think that’s where your MSP, your technology partner can play such a vital role where someone like at JMARK, where we have spent so much time figuring out the processes, figuring out how to avoid the pitfalls of taking a company and streamlining their technology and making things more efficient.
Dax:
And we figured out the processes we need to do, and we already know we do this and we do these things. Here’s the problems that might happen. We’ve already prepared, we’ve got answers so that those aren’t going to disrupt the work that you’re doing. And I think that is a vital component that can get overlooked sometimes. When people think that they’re ready to do this, they… Yeah, you might be able to do this and get there, but can you do it and get there quicker, more efficiently and save yourself disruption and save yourself stress and headaches and trouble.
Todd:
Yeah. The changes that are happening, they’re so small, but they’re so transformational. The other day I had a radio ad from a place to change your oil. And they said, “You don’t even have to get out of your car. You just pull up, we change your oil and you leave.” And I was thinking, “Man, that’s awesome. I don’t have to wait somewhere. I don’t have to strategically pick a oil place that’s near a restaurant, so I can go grab something to eat while that’s being done. I can just drive through, get in.” And while technology didn’t necessarily play a role in that transformation, it’s probably on the backend doing something. There’s logistics to figure out, there’s the queuing of everybody, there’s what do you do if there’s too many cars, and how do you distribute things?
Todd:
Getting the receipts and payment done without having to go into an office they’re probably doing it just right there on a some type of a tablet or something. And that’s all technology oriented. And so I think that’s something that people need to look at is, that may not look like a big change. If you’re a big Jiffy Lube or something, you may think, “Oh, that’s nothing. That’s nothing.” But that’s very attractive. It’s a little tiny thing that is very attractive. And it’s technology that’s playing a part in that transformation. And if others don’t adapt, then that’s going to be their loss.
Kristina:
I have a stat for you. 70% of digital transformations fail most often due to resistance from employees.
Todd:
Well, everybody likes change.
Kristina:
True.
Dax:
Yeah. I think that’s just it. Most of us always our first reaction is going to be to resist the change. And I think a huge part of that is because we have all gone through painful changes where they weren’t planned out well, they weren’t implemented well and it disrupted our lives, disrupted our work and it was troublesome for us. And so that’s why people resist it. And I think that’s again why it’s so important to partner with a technology partner that’s going to help you plan and map out.
Dax:
And coming back to Todd’s favorite word strategy, the strategy and the process of making these changes, so if they’re not painful. Making these changes, I’m pretty sure we talked about this in a previous podcast where JMARK, we’re going to go in and we’re going to sit down with somebody and look at everything that needs to be done and figure out how are we going to do this in light of what you want to achieve and might have your goals so that this might need to be done first, because this is more urgent for where you want to be.
Dax:
This is important, but we can wait a little bit, we’ll do this at this time because you have this very busy season and every single one of these things are going to be part of the conversation and going to be taken into account so that we can remove that pain from the change and people are still gonna resist it but hopefully the end result is that a lot of these changes are happening and your employees don’t even know they’re happening. They just know that things are getting better.
Todd:
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too, is I’ll bet money that that staff typically is probably from 2019. Because in my experience, technology change is not equal to other types of change. It’s not the same level of discomfort. Because people have been trained for years on moving to technology. They use their phone. That started out as just a dumb device to a flip phone, to a Blackberry or something like that. And now you have a totally smart device that’s more powerful than the spaceship that went to the moon, and you can shop on it. I mean, I actually prefer shopping a lot of times on my phone than I do going to a website. It’s just faster. And so you have people that are trained in this.
Todd:
And in my experience, the technology changes usually give people time. They relieve stress they give people productivity, they give people a sense of accomplishment. They encourage and they facilitate success. And there are people that any change, no matter what it sucks. But in my experience, technology change, especially after the big blow of change of COVID-19, everything is easy after that. But technology change really, for the most part, I think people have embraced it. I think they gravitate towards it. And it’s not just about getting a more powerful computer or something like that. It’s about automation and it’s about velocity and getting things done.
Dax:
Great. Can I throw out a stat or am I going to… Is that your job today, Kristina?
Kristina:
I’ll allow it.
Dax:
Okay. So this one, I think to me, it was really eyeopening, 87% of companies think digital will disrupt their industry, but only 44% are prepared for that potential digital disruption.
Todd:
Interesting I had to read that one.
Dax:
You did.
Kristina:
I think we talked about it before this.
Dax:
Maybe we did, but I think that it’s eye-opening. These are companies that know the change is coming, but are not prepared for it. And I guess my first thought is, well, if not prepared, hopefully you’re preparing, like you’re in the process, but if you’re not my question is what are you waiting for? What’s holding you back from being prepared for this thing is going to happen.
Todd:
Yeah, it’s digital transformation, the term has been thrown around for years. I mean, I gave a presentation on it in 2018 at our JBT Conference. And I was hesitating even doing it because it was like, “I mean, this is kind of old news.” And that was 2018. And we’ve seen digital transformation progress like no other. And it’s not really a question anymore of if, it’s you have to do it. I mean, things have changed so much that most industries, if they do not change their technology, their processes through technology, how their people use technology, they’re not going to come out on top on the other side. This is a foundational change in behavior of customers in markets, in industries that is… I mean, when you really start looking at it, it is huge. I could talk for hours on just all the changes I have seen across every industry in the last six months. I mean, it’s not either you get on board or you start figuring out succession plan or selling your company.
Dax:
Yeah, I mean another couple of stats. Digitally mature companies are 23% more profitable than their less mature peers. 56% of CEOs say digital improvements have led to increase revenue and digital first companies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals than their peers.
Todd:
Yeah. You just have to say Amazon after your own [inaudible 00:37:49]. I mean, like we were talking about earlier, they don’t care about returns because it’s more expensive. They’ve used technology in such an efficient manner that those kinds of costs for probably thousands of trailer to my thought across the nation of stuff it’s just, “Write it off. It is what it is.” So it’s true. Definitely.
Dax:
Yeah. These are the companies that are seeing this as an opportunity, not as a burden that you have to go through, but an opportunity. And I think to me, that’s a mindset to have. Like what opportunities can making these changes open up to us? And how do we leverage technology to do something that no one else in our market is doing? And to bring in customers and that’s… We’ve talked about this again and again, it’s always just about connecting with your customers. Where you started out this entire conversation, Todd by talking about meeting your customers where they are. And I think that’s what matters.
Todd:
Yeah, it’s evolving world. And I think that as we’ve talked about that there’s not a more important time than there’s ever been in the history of business that we have to take technology seriously and have to look at technology and look at how it can solve strategic problems and look at how it can solve the needs and wants and behaviors of our customers and our clients, our revenue sources. And as we embrace the ability of technology to create efficiencies in our businesses, then we will see this massive transformation and success and profitability and just competitive awareness being more competitive than your creditors.
Todd:
And it’s a need. As we go into the end of the year or anytime, whenever someone listens to this, watches it, it’s get your people together and start talking, talk to customers, talk to industry experts, talk to technology experts like JMARK, and figure out what are the next steps, because it’s a requirement and everybody is a technology business as our CEO likes to say, and technology is going to be the thing that separates the winners from the losers.
Todd:
So as always, if you want to learn more about JMARK and some of the things we do, reach out to us @jmark.com and in the coming week, we have an amazing, awesome resources that we’re going to be sharing. One is Billionaire’s IT Secrets Blackbook, that’s where we took some awesome lessons. It’s a fun read, a very easy read that give valuable lessons for change and for adapting. And then after that, we have also a buyer’s guide and an assessment that you can use to understand truly how to buy IT services and what the different options look like. So have a wonderful week and please reach out to us. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for attending this podcast. We hope it has been informative and help convey that at JMARK, we are people first and technology second. To learn more and discover additional content relevant to your business, please visit us [email protected] or at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You may also call us at 84444 JMARK. Thank you for your time. And we look forward to seeing you again.
