223 - Unlocking Cloud Success with Dux Raymond Sy, AvePoint's Chief Brand Officer

Dux Raymond Sy, Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint, joins Ultimate Partner®

With over 20 years of business, marketing, and technology experience, Dux has driven organizational transformations worldwide with his ability to simplify complex ideas and deliver relevant solutions. He is recognized by Microsoft as Regional Director (RD) and Most Valuable Professional (MVP), as well as the author of LinkedIn Learning course How to Build Your Personal Brand, book SharePoint for Project Management, and numerous whitepapers and articles.

In today’s episode, we are excited to welcome a leader who stands at the forefront of technological advancements, Dux Raymond Sy. AvePoint is a global leader in data management and security solutions in the cloud, collaborating closely with hyperscalers and integrating AI into their offerings. Dux will discuss how AvePoint is driving change and helping partners achieve their greatest success through cutting-edge solutions and strategic partnerships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_wFKkp05M

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What You’ll Learn

1. The importance of knowing when to pivot in business

• Timestamp: 00;30;02;16 – 00;30;05;09
• Vince and Dux discuss the significance of pivoting in business growth.

1. Embracing a growth mindset

• Timestamp: 00;30;06;24 – 00;30;08;14
• They emphasize the role of a growth mindset in personal and professional development.

1. Taking calculated risks

• Timestamp: 00;30;32;26 – 00;30;33;29
• Dux advocates for taking risks in business endeavors despite uncertainties.

1. Choosing guests for a hypothetical dinner party

• Timestamp: 00;30;51;03 – 00;30;59;17
• Vince and Dux discuss inviting historical figures like Tim Berners-Lee and Mother Teresa.

1. Tim Berners-Lee’s impact on the internet

• Timestamp: 00;31;18;09 – 00;31;30;23
• They reflect on Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web and its global implications.

1. Mother Teresa’s legacy of service

• Timestamp: 00;32;30;20 – 00;32;37;21
• Dux praises Mother Teresa’s dedication to helping the marginalized and underserved.

1. Personal sacrifices and family influence

• Timestamp: 00;33;15;29 – 00;33;34;24
• Dux shares personal sentiments about his late father’s sacrifices and influence on his life.

1. Perspective on wealth and impact

• Timestamp: 00;34;21;02 – 00;34;45;12
• They discuss the balance between financial success and making a positive impact on the world.

1. Encouragement to seize business opportunities

• Timestamp: 00;35;16;08 – 00;35;33;25
• Dux advises listeners to jump into business opportunities without overthinking, emphasizing the current market dynamics.

1. Invitation to engage with their partnership community
   • Timestamp: 00;36;44;29 – 00;37;23;27
   • Vince invites listeners to participate in their partnership community and discusses the future of their collaborative platform.

Quotes

“AI has democratized technology, making it accessible just like the World Wide Web did for the internet.”
“Effective partnering goes beyond PR; it’s about mutual benefit and aligning success metrics.”
“Our strategy focuses on creating value through trust and open communication, ensuring lasting partnerships.”

Transcript – Created by Adobe AI
(there may be some typos)

00;00;00;04 – 00;00;08;21
Dux
But I think what happened with OpenAI, especially ChatGPT, just democratize AI. It made available public, just like what the World Wide Web did for the internet.

00;00;08;21 – 00;00;12;00
Vince
Exactly.

00;00;12;03 – 00;00;39;12
Vince
Welcome back to The Ultimate Partner. I’m Vince Manzi on your host, and I’m on a mission to empower every individual, organization and partner to achieve their greatest results through successful partnering. Much of the discussion we’ve been having has been around the tectonic shifts this decade of the ecosystem, the increasing dominance of the three hyperscalers and the role of AI, the dominance of AI, and the future opportunities around AI.

00;00;39;15 – 00;01;05;27
Vince
And my guest today is a leader in an organization that’s at the forefront of some of this technology, working with the hyperscalers, infusing AI into their solutions, and driving the change. We’re seeing partners drive to lead to their greatest success. My guest today is Dux Raymond CI, the chief brand officer of AB Point and a long time friend of this podcast, and me personally.

00;01;06;00 – 00;01;07;23
Vince
Ducks, welcome to the podcast.

00;01;07;29 – 00;01;12;24
Dux
Hey, Vince. Thank you for having me back. I should buy you dinner.

00;01;12;26 – 00;01;16;00
Vince
well, look where we are, right? I mean, we’re in Boca Raton, Florida.

00;01;16;01 – 00;01;17;12
Dux
We’re not really at the beach, are we?

00;01;17;15 – 00;01;23;25
Vince
Well, we’re too close to the beach. I got about a mile away here, but we like to bring the beach front here in the studio.

00;01;23;26 – 00;01;31;16
Dux
I got to tell you, this is my. Believe it or not, first time in Boca. I’ve been in Miami a lot. Crazy. But this is a nice part of Florida.

00;01;31;16 – 00;01;32;22
Vince
It’s a nice little spot.

00;01;32;23 – 00;01;34;23
Dux
It’s like a hidden secret, you know.

00;01;34;24 – 00;01;58;15
Vince
Palm Beach County, I live in Jupiter a little bit further north, but it’s still, this is all a great spot. And, you know, we talked about this at our event that this is the place where Bill gates came to 43 years ago. That’s crazy. Signed the agreement with IBM. Right. And that sparked this ecosystem. Really. Did that change the flip from hardware centric to software centric really happened at that point or after that point.

00;01;58;17 – 00;02;04;29
Dux
In one thing that struck me when you said that is, I wonder why this didn’t become the Silicon Valley.

00;02;05;02 – 00;02;06;18
Vince
It’s crazy. It didn’t. Yeah.

00;02;06;19 – 00;02;08;00
Dux
IBM was out here.

00;02;08;03 – 00;02;20;14
Vince
You know, maybe the intention was that it was going to be right. So in New York, company comes down, opens a Boca Raton campus way back in the day. That’s right. 6070s, Florida went through some interesting times. That’s a whole nother podcast.

00;02;20;18 – 00;02;21;09
Dux
There you go.

00;02;21;12 – 00;02;46;09
Vince
But, you know, we had a conversation at our event around AI. This $158 billion opportunity that Canalys is cited. And also the change in sentiment towards AI. Right. With what’s happened in the last 18 months. Right. The way it’s written, none of us expected it. Microsoft didn’t expect it. Google didn’t expect that they were all flat footed in some respects when the release of open AI happened.

00;02;46;10 – 00;02;49;09
Vince
Right. What would you say about that?

00;02;49;12 – 00;03;13;10
Dux
I think look, AI is nothing new. You and I know this. It’s been around. I would say even the late 70s, all the work has begun back then. For us as a company, we’ve been developing products that relies on the AI starting 2018, 2019. But I think what happened with OpenAI, especially ChatGPT, just democratize AI. It made available public just like the world Wide Web did for the internet.

00;03;13;10 – 00;03;13;29
Vince
Exactly.

00;03;13;29 – 00;03;16;28
Dux
And it’s an exciting time. Yep. Yeah.

00;03;17;01 – 00;03;34;22
Vince
It’s amazing time. So I’m going to back up for a second because we got we got so entrenched in this conversation about Boka that I didn’t get a chance to ask you to introduce yourself. you’ve been on this podcast a few times. In fact, I have a funny story and I’m going to share it with our viewers and listeners here.

00;03;34;24 – 00;03;55;12
Vince
Ducks was one of my very first podcast guests. I was using zoom to record out of my room back in the day. And, in those days, you had hit the record button on zoom in order to record the podcast. This is like 2017, right? And we had the most fast like, most engaging conversation. You were just on a chair.

00;03;55;12 – 00;03;59;07
Vince
You were going. So it was so good. And then I looked up it and I realized.

00;03;59;07 – 00;03;59;13
Dux
I had.

00;03;59;13 – 00;04;06;29
Vince
Already that was a recording. I said, Dax, we got to start it, start all over again. And that was it. That was a great time. You’ve been on the podcast a few times since.

00;04;07;05 – 00;04;13;13
Dux
Well, thank you, thank you. I’m so grateful and, honored to be back time and again. And now together here.

00;04;13;20 – 00;04;28;04
Vince
We’ve uplevel the experience now for our viewers and our listeners. But for those who haven’t, don’t that don’t know ducks. And there may be 1 or 2 people, not many that I know that don’t know who you are. Ducks. Raymond Sai, can you tell us a little bit about yourself at that point?

00;04;28;06 – 00;04;48;03
Dux
Well, my name is Ducks Raymond Sai and yes, you heard that right. Ducks, ducks. I got all the Monroe. I serve as the chief brand officer of appoint, an appointed global leader of data management and data security solutions in the cloud. As a company, we’ve been around, boy, 22 years, and we built the business on the backs of Microsoft.

00;04;48;03 – 00;04;59;18
Dux
And now we offer a lot of solutions throughout the different cloud platforms. So personally, it’s been an amazing ride. I’ve been with the airplane for almost 12 years now, but in the industry it seems longer.

00;04;59;18 – 00;05;00;17
Vince
It seems so much like I.

00;05;00;17 – 00;05;08;10
Dux
Know I’ve been in this industry a lot more than 24 years. Yeah, I mean, you and I don’t look that, but yeah, we are.

00;05;08;10 – 00;05;24;29
Vince
You’re much younger than I am. But you’ve had a fascinating, journey yourself as well. We’ll talk a little bit more about at 5.2 and the journey of the organization, because it’s been fascinating as well. But, you know, your personal story, like I remember I think you shared it. You know, we were both on social quite a bit.

00;05;24;29 – 00;05;36;29
Vince
And I remember you showed it very early clip of yourself. I think you were at a SharePoint conference something and you were asked and it was a different duck’s like that experience. Tell us about your transformation. Your personal transformation.

00;05;37;02 – 00;05;53;18
Dux
Well, I got to say this, my transformation and the opportunities that came my way wouldn’t have been possible if I was in the United States. Yeah. So regardless of what people say, there’s no perfect place in the world. To me, this is still the best place to thrive and grow and be successful.

00;05;53;19 – 00;05;55;02
Vince
Absolutely.

00;05;55;04 – 00;05;58;24
Dux
I’m an electrical engineer. I start my day.

00;05;58;25 – 00;05;59;13
Vince
It’s amazing.

00;05;59;13 – 00;06;04;23
Dux
I start my career in the mid 90s. I work for a small company called Siemens.

00;06;04;25 – 00;06;06;00
Vince
Yeah, a little company.

00;06;06;02 – 00;06;27;06
Dux
Yeah. And then a year or so later, I realize I like coding, but I like people more. Yeah. I just can’t sit all day long coding. Yeah. And that started my career as an entrepreneur. So I started my business. In fact, it was a back then MSP wasn’t a thing, but that’s what we did. We did services. We managed technology for customers.

00;06;27;09 – 00;06;49;03
Dux
And I remember as an entrepreneur I’m like, oh, I’m technically savvy. I should get customers. Not really. So I had to learn sales. I had to learn marketing with no money. And I go, how can I get people to know about me and my company? I’m like, I’m gonna write a book. So at that time I go, well, there’s this thing called SharePoint.

00;06;49;03 – 00;06;58;13
Dux
Seems like it’s hot. And I we’ve been using it, we’ve been developing stuff on it. So I pitched the idea SharePoint for a project management to O’Reilly media. I don’t, you know, O’Reilly.

00;06;58;13 – 00;07;02;27
Vince
I do from our previous conversation, but I don’t think many of our viewers and listeners know or.

00;07;02;28 – 00;07;20;28
Dux
Know they don’t know O’Reilly, but they’re the books with animals on it. Yes. So I remember they assign me an animal and explain how it relates to the title of my book. Oh, that was pretty cool. And yeah, the rest is history. So after that book, I started writing a lot. I get to speak at events, say you’re.

00;07;20;28 – 00;07;25;01
Vince
A foremost expert in SharePoint, which was a hot was a hot product back in those days.

00;07;25;02 – 00;07;32;14
Dux
Oh, yeah. And even today, a lot of people don’t know this, but the content fabric of 365 is still SharePoint.

00;07;32;14 – 00;07;34;29
Vince
Yeah. Yeah. And teams as well Microsoft Teams.

00;07;35;00 – 00;07;46;06
Dux
Absolutely. So so yeah. So that was my journey. And I joined our point in 2013 in as the, public sector chief technical officer. Yes.

00;07;46;08 – 00;07;57;06
Vince
That’s how we got met. I was running the public sector partner business at Microsoft, and, you you were very kind and supportive of what we were doing on our side. And, you were always my favorite partner to work with.

00;07;57;06 – 00;07;57;29
Dux
Thank you.

00;07;58;01 – 00;08;13;07
Vince
As well. So, let’s talk about this transformation of AV point. And also we’re going to dive in on AI and what that point is doing here. But your organization, we talked about this 22 year journey basically two founders. Did you started the company.

00;08;13;07 – 00;08;13;25
Dux
Yeah.

00;08;13;27 – 00;08;19;21
Vince
Even when I first met you, you were still a much smaller company. Tell us more about AV point, the organization.

00;08;19;24 – 00;08;36;28
Dux
Yeah. So today, like I mentioned, appoints a global leader in, data management and data security across all cloud platforms. We have over 21,000 customers. our technologies available over 100 marketplace around the world. That’s around the world. We’re, over 3500 partners that we work with.

00;08;36;29 – 00;08;38;07
Vince
So publicly traded.

00;08;38;11 – 00;08;59;00
Dux
Publicly traded, and so grateful for this growth. Now, how did it start? It’s cool. Like, you hear stories out in the valley around how Google started out. Yahoo. So it’s kind of similar. But we’re just here in the East Coast. Yeah. Our founders, Chi Gong and TJ Yang, they, they just started the company building a product in the public library.

00;08;59;02 – 00;09;21;26
Dux
So they built the first SharePoint migration product. And the big break was, TJ was telling me this in SharePoint 2003 event, you know, they announced SharePoint 2003. And, customers were like, well, how do we migrate this thing from 2001? And they he said, I raised my hand. I said, we have a product for it. So that was the big break.

00;09;21;27 – 00;09;26;03
Vince
Fascinating. Did they actually have a product at that point? Maybe almost.

00;09;26;03 – 00;09;28;29
Dux
But they did. They did. a week later they had it right.

00;09;29;00 – 00;09;29;23
Vince
That’s fascinating.

00;09;29;23 – 00;09;39;29
Dux
And and then. Yeah. And then the business grew. We provide a lot of capabilities around SharePoint. And I think the secret to our point is really listening to customers.

00;09;40;06 – 00;09;40;18
Vince
Yes.

00;09;40;25 – 00;09;52;11
Dux
the evolving needs a customer. So we built a full suite of product for SharePoint on prem. And then in 2010 when Microsoft decided in 2011 that they’re going to go all in the cloud, if you remember, because.

00;09;52;13 – 00;09;59;16
Vince
Oh, I remember people very well. Thank you. How could you forget a name like beep beep. That’s right. Business process.

00;09;59;17 – 00;10;01;19
Dux
I know I’m crazy. This is productivity.

00;10;01;23 – 00;10;05;23
Vince
Productivity online services. Thank you I that’s really what it stood for.

00;10;05;28 – 00;10;09;01
Dux
And for those that don’t know what it is it’s it’s Microsoft 365.

00;10;09;01 – 00;10;10;05
Vince
Yeah it basically.

00;10;10;05 – 00;10;27;28
Dux
Is. And then what. So Microsoft rounded up some key partners say, hey, we’re going to do this. Who’s in with us. And we need partners to make this work. So we raised our hand was like, yeah, we’ll build with you. But that was a big, big bit. I remember internal conversations. You know, there are some people like who’s going to go to the cloud, like, why are we doing this?

00;10;27;28 – 00;10;34;27
Dux
Yeah. Because that also means shifting our revenue model to subscription. Right.

00;10;35;00 – 00;10;37;12
Vince
Very different revenue model. Very different. Yes.

00;10;37;12 – 00;10;58;12
Dux
But we went through that transition. So today our platform, it’s called the confidence platform where across over 14 data centers around the world now and we manage hundreds and hundreds of petabytes of data. we have all the global certifications. You’re FedRAMP, you’re in the US certification in Australia, and we’re continuing to invest in our technology platform.

00;10;58;13 – 00;10;59;03
Vince
It’s fascinating.

00;10;59;03 – 00;11;22;14
Dux
And the cool story about that. Everything we’ve learned around there, partners have access to it to offer to their customers as well. And last thing I want to say about App Point is, I don’t know if I’ve shared this. The logo is very meaningful to us, and our point logo means two things. It’s always dream big and be humble about it.

00;11;22;14 – 00;11;33;03
Dux
Because the A in the circle shows the sun is always rising. It’s always like this. Big dreams, big hope. But it also means somebody with the head bowed down.

00;11;33;05 – 00;11;36;04
Vince
I never noticed that. Yeah, I never noticed. So fascinating.

00;11;36;04 – 00;11;48;17
Dux
Always dream big, but with humility. So that’s been anchoring the organization and we’re continue to innovate. We’re keen to do what’s possible, especially now, you know, with AI.

00;11;48;20 – 00;12;22;14
Vince
We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Partner Software, the world’s leading provider of partner management technologies, serving over 4 million partners globally. In partner excels in delivering cutting edge solutions for partner relationship management and partner marketing automation. Their robust platform offers essential tools like program compliance tracking, customizable partner journeys, and comprehensive business planning. These features empower our partner teams to swiftly transition from program design to achieving maximum value.

00;12;22;20 – 00;12;45;21
Vince
In partner is dedicated to supporting partner ecosystems everywhere and continues to innovate with new modules like Analytics Studio Design to help track and maximize the ROI of your partner program. For more information, visit in partner.com.

00;12;45;24 – 00;13;15;01
Vince
So, you may know this by now because, I’ve been talking about the seven principles of successful partnering now for many years. And basically boiled down a set of operating principles that I believe to be successful. And you represent one of those operating principles in a big way. And, many times when I am giving presentations and doing keynotes, I talk about one of those principles around effective partnering, being about brand and story.

00;13;15;03 – 00;13;33;14
Vince
And thank you. I, I, I reference you quite a bit because I think that you’ve done probably one of the most effective jobs I’ve seen. And I mean this truly is a compliment of understanding how to work with the tech giant, whether it be a Microsoft, a Google or an Amazon, and building those relationships and building that brand.

00;13;33;18 – 00;14;00;09
Vince
And we talk about like, what are the pinnacle partners to what are the most award winning partners? And at five point has been a Global Partner of the year award winner multiple years in a row. you have done some things differently, I believe I love it. If you could dive in a little bit, but I do think that you exude this brand and story message better than most organizations like building your relationships, building your story, being known for something that others aren’t known for.

00;14;00;09 – 00;14;03;10
Vince
Kids spend a few moments here for our viewers and listeners.

00;14;03;10 – 00;14;26;15
Dux
Absolutely. I think, you know, as I reflect on that question, I think there’s three core things that not only important to me, but important to our point as an organization, we partner regardless with if it’s with the hyperscalers or with our channel ecosystem. Well, first and foremost, at the end of the day, we’re we’re a business, right? So we have to focus on the alignment and what the mutual benefit is.

00;14;26;17 – 00;14;45;16
Dux
You know, oftentimes we see press releases, oh, you know, and so and so partner with so and so. But to me it’s beyond that. It’s not just this PR take a picture and let’s put it on social. We have to think about what your needs are. What what’s your metric for success in what ours are.

00;14;45;17 – 00;14;49;00
Vince
So what’s your scorecard? We used to call it back and then. Yeah, exactly.

00;14;49;00 – 00;15;09;25
Dux
KPIs scorecard OKRs. Right. However you want to call it. But so for example, our solutions today addresses the need of a massive addressable market. Right. So let’s just pick Microsoft Microsoft 365 at least last they report they have over 350 million paying subscribers a month.

00;15;09;26 – 00;15;12;26
Vince
350 million paid paid.

00;15;12;26 – 00;15;28;13
Dux
That’s only Microsoft haven’t talked about Google or Salesforce or none of that, right? That’s paid to us. That’s massive. Yeah. And then more importantly, as a vendor, we know that these customers would need help around services.

00;15;28;13 – 00;15;29;03
Vince
That’s right.

00;15;29;05 – 00;15;50;28
Dux
So what we can do is we come to our channel ecosystem and say, sure, today, let let let me say MSPs, let me pick them. Right. They do a lot of work around migration, for example, taking customer two 365 or protecting their data with backup. Yeah. But what we’re saying is you can actually offer more services. You know, you can increase your recurring revenue.

00;15;51;00 – 00;16;12;29
Dux
Now. Copilot help customers get their data ready, secure it, optimize it on an ongoing basis. So so to me, it’s focusing on that alignment and mutual benefit. We win and they win. I think the the next thing is, my next step is just having, open communication and, and build trust. At the end of the day, people buy from people.

00;16;12;29 – 00;16;14;04
Vince
That’s right.

00;16;14;06 – 00;16;21;14
Dux
I can give you the most MDF or, you know, the most incentives and discounts, what have you. But if I can’t trust you, Vince.

00;16;21;14 – 00;16;22;22
Vince
I’m sorry. Yeah.

00;16;22;24 – 00;16;28;18
Dux
It’s true. So? So it’s a human relationship in. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.

00;16;28;20 – 00;16;48;29
Vince
I love what you have to say here. And what I will also add to that too, is understanding, taking an active role with your partner. and then maybe that’s where the trust piece comes in, right. I know you and I both are active in an organization as advisors. and, and building those personal relationships over time, over years.

00;16;48;29 – 00;16;52;11
Vince
Right? It just doesn’t happen overnight. This is not a once in done thing that we do.

00;16;52;18 – 00;17;08;04
Dux
And then that’s why I always, you know, when I hear conversation around, oh, I got to meet this person to do account mapping. Yeah. It doesn’t work like that. You know, if that’s the first thing you say, hey, I want to schedule a meeting to do a mapping that’s so transactional. Nobody’s gonna respond.

00;17;08;04 – 00;17;09;10
Vince
Nobody’s going to respond to that.

00;17;09;10 – 00;17;10;08
Dux
No.

00;17;10;10 – 00;17;31;09
Vince
So we’ve been talking about these tectonic shifts. Yeah, we’ve been talking about this time of transformation, the hyper, the massive role of the hyperscalers. It’s just it’s incredible. Like nobody else can make these massive investments. That’s why they’re the hyperscalers, right? Microsoft $14 billion a quarter. That’s right in build out. It’s crazy chips and infrastructure just that alone.

00;17;31;11 – 00;17;53;01
Vince
And now we layer in AI and this massive opportunity around AI. And at our event you spoke about what have points been doing around AI and what you think about AI and its and its future potential. I was hoping we could talk more about that and also wanted to cite that like, you know, 18 months ago, we weren’t having these conversations.

00;17;53;01 – 00;18;08;03
Vince
As you said, AI’s been around for 20, 30 years, maybe longer. But really, we weren’t really having the conversations about AI that we’re having today to talk more about how you’re infusing AI into your business and how you’re thinking about the future growth and opportunities.

00;18;08;03 – 00;18;14;29
Dux
Sure. Well, first question I have is, have you bought any Nvidia stocks? I look at their market cap.

00;18;15;02 – 00;18;24;03
Vince
there’s a long story about my Nvidia stock, and I’d rather not share it publicly, but, let’s just say I had Tesla and Nvidia at one point. There you go. And I sold the wrong one. Okay.

00;18;24;06 – 00;18;24;17
Dux
All right.

00;18;24;17 – 00;18;26;10
Vince
Now let’s just say.

00;18;26;12 – 00;18;26;24
Dux
Today.

00;18;26;25 – 00;18;30;26
Vince
Today. But I but I’m mostly into, you know, the broad markets.

00;18;30;27 – 00;18;31;11
Dux
There you go.

00;18;31;12 – 00;18;36;17
Vince
I don’t I don’t I try not to make too many individual investment decisions for longer.

00;18;36;19 – 00;18;55;27
Dux
So indeed as, as we discuss. Right. There’s massive opportunity for you. Yeah. But specific to us, you know, there’s really three things we’re doing today that we think will help us grow and maximize this AI opportunity. So first we’re really investing internally equipping our pointers.

00;18;56;04 – 00;18;56;24
Vince
Nice to.

00;18;56;24 – 00;19;24;15
Dux
Embrace AI. I’m not just talking about devs, I’m talking about devs to business teams. You know, accounting, finance, marketing and where you talk about drinking the Kool-Aid. We’re all in like, but what’s so cool is we use copilot, our one of my finance colleagues, he’s he’s like the most power user I know, but it’s awesome because to us, sure, we can sell AI related products, but the mindset has changed.

00;19;24;15 – 00;19;28;01
Dux
And so this is just a totally different way of working, thinking and coding.

00;19;28;02 – 00;19;29;12
Vince
And it changes every day.

00;19;29;12 – 00;19;55;03
Dux
It does, it does. And for example, prompting is important. Well, I said cool. It’s really not that smart. Yeah. You have to give proper prompts. Right. So that’s the first thing we’re doing. We’re investing internally making sure we’re adopting our mindset. We’ll really embrace AI and how we can benefit from it. Second is to a lot of customers, it’s still a novelty, right?

00;19;55;04 – 00;19;59;18
Dux
It’s new, but we need to help them prepare their data.

00;19;59;21 – 00;20;01;04
Vince
They’re building their muscle, too.

00;20;01;09 – 00;20;21;11
Dux
They are. I mean, everybody’s excited, right? Yes. But at the same time, people don’t realize is it relies on data. And we all know that if you lift the hood under the covers. Yeah, everybody’s a digital hoarder. Their data estate is a mess. Always in. The good news is.

00;20;21;11 – 00;20;23;20
Vince
It’s that drawer that empty drawer, that junk.

00;20;23;20 – 00;20;43;17
Dux
Drawer. That’s right. Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen the show hoarders. Yeah, that’s exactly what. It’s exactly what? People don’t want to admit it, but. But that’s what we’re seeing, right? A lot of organizations are piloting copilot, and then suddenly they realize, hold on, number one, how come it’s pulling information from 20 years ago? Yeah. Or number two, we’re seeing information we’re not supposed to.

00;20;43;20 – 00;20;45;22
Vince
Yeah, that’s that’s the big issue right?

00;20;45;22 – 00;20;47;04
Dux
That’s right, that’s right.

00;20;47;04 – 00;21;01;16
Vince
You don’t want people to see what the cfo’s compensation is. You don’t want them to be able to see the secrets of the organization hasn’t released yet. Right? Microsoft went through an internal challenge with with a press release 100% that wasn’t ready for release. And then everybody saw that it was just this.

00;21;01;16 – 00;21;22;14
Dux
Year in just so you know, it’s not it’s not about people being malicious. Yeah. It’s just that there’s so much information. People don’t know what’s out there. Are the permissions set up right. So what we’re doing from an AI perspective is not only we’re equipping customers, but also partners to get their data prepared, secured and optimize. But we’ve been at this forever.

00;21;22;14 – 00;21;34;27
Dux
It’s not like we just created new tools for AI. This is our core strength from day one. Yeah, and that’s really exciting. Regardless if you’re doing copilot today or not, you still have to get your data foundation.

00;21;34;27 – 00;21;35;07
Vince
Right.

00;21;35;11 – 00;21;56;14
Dux
Set up, and then the last thing we’re doing with AI is we’re investing in industry solutions. yesterday I showcase our education solution, which is which is really cool. Like you could do remote proctoring with, cognitive services. So if somebody taking a test, remote test, it will watch the environment and track your eyeballs if you’re cheating.

00;21;56;20 – 00;21;57;22
Vince
Oh, that is fantastic.

00;21;57;22 – 00;21;59;23
Dux
I mean, at least in-state students. Yeah, I.

00;21;59;25 – 00;22;00;28
Vince
Want to say.

00;22;01;01 – 00;22;01;28
Dux
But this is through here.

00;22;02;00 – 00;22;04;06
Vince
This is the world we live in now. Past. Is it right?

00;22;04;07 – 00;22;22;23
Dux
It is. Yeah. Another example is financial services. So we just, we’re we’re working with the government organizations and banks in Apacs to build an AI powered, solution to prevent money laundering in traffic. This is really cool stuff. And you can only do it with AI.

00;22;22;25 – 00;22;24;10
Vince
It’s fascinating times we live in.

00;22;24;10 – 00;22;27;04
Dux
Yeah.

00;22;27;06 – 00;22;51;24
Vince
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00;22;51;26 – 00;23;20;04
Vince
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00;23;20;05 – 00;23;44;14
Vince
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00;23;44;21 – 00;24;15;10
Vince
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00;24;15;10 – 00;24;36;17
Vince
And this is channels and ecosystems right? I mean we talk about sparking the ecosystem at point has always been a partner led organization. Building out your well start off certainly in the Microsoft world, working directly with Microsoft and then building your partner capacity over time. Let’s talk about the work and investments that that point is making here.

00;24;36;19 – 00;25;03;12
Dux
So our points an organization we you know, our biggest partner is Microsoft. And all the solutions we build is around B2B enterprise technology. So through the years we’ve worked a lot with customers directly, but also in the last four years we doubled down our investment with building our channel ecosystem. today we have all kinds of partners from SES, resellers, Vars to MSPs.

00;25;03;15 – 00;25;27;08
Dux
But what we’re doing of late is really investing more with our MSP partners, because we see that there’s a lot of growth in the customers that they serve, and we’re about to launch additional incentives, new benefits. But more importantly, I’m really excited about this because towards the end of the year, we’ll have an event and you’ll come to this event.

00;25;27;08 – 00;25;28;16
Vince
I’m looking forward to this.

00;25;28;17 – 00;25;37;11
Dux
We’ll we’ll do all these announcement. But one of the cool things is we’re investing heavily in our elements partner platform in this elements. Yes. Okay. This is something I haven’t done.

00;25;37;12 – 00;25;38;22
Vince
Yeah. No this is new to me.

00;25;38;22 – 00;26;07;01
Dux
Yeah. So on one hand we have a lot of products that our partners take and build services on. Yes. So let’s say Copilot data readiness, backup, migration. We have all these products, but if you’re a partner, you have access to our elements partner platform. And what does that do? Our elements partner platform increases operational efficiency because you log in, you can put all your customers there and say apply this.

00;26;07;03 – 00;26;34;29
Dux
You know, backup policy to my ten customers. Boom. Right. Or you can also streamline multi-tenant management because if you’re an MSP, I’m managing a company a company B company C, I would have to log in to the different environments. Yeah, yeah. But with elements. Yeah. Single pane of glass and be able to apply rules and policies and billing and licensing in one platform.

00;26;35;06 – 00;26;42;16
Vince
Sounds fascinating. So it’s giving the MSPs again that one pane of glass. That’s right. You look at they can look across maybe multiple clients.

00;26;42;16 – 00;26;43;04
Dux
That’s right.

00;26;43;06 – 00;26;44;12
Vince
Yeah. And apply and.

00;26;44;17 – 00;27;00;11
Dux
Apply technology and then last in rules. And lastly it automates a lot of managed services activities. So for example I talk about copilot security. In fact, yesterday, which reminded me Gartner released a report on how to secure copilot.

00;27;00;14 – 00;27;01;00
Vince
Interesting.

00;27;01;00 – 00;27;01;25
Dux
And they mentioned us.

00;27;02;02 – 00;27;03;12
Vince
Oh, that’s fascinating.

00;27;03;12 – 00;27;28;28
Dux
They said you need tools beyond what Microsoft Office and Apple has one of those tools. But going back to elements. So let’s say you’re an MSP. You can use elements to monitor your customer’s environment. So if there’s any behaviors or things that’s not supposed to happen, you can apply rules automatically with technology. So that reduces, you know, the need for more headcount to physically take care of your customer’s environment.

00;27;29;00 – 00;27;48;27
Vince
Well, you mentioned security and we talked about like the priorities of Microsoft. from our event yesterday, we had several Microsoft executives in the room as well as leaders like ducks. And it seems like, you know, some of the same priorities we talked about. I certainly AI is the number one priority, but security is becoming, omnipresent and important across the organization.

00;27;48;27 – 00;27;58;01
Vince
It’s basically the foundational layer now. And Microsoft is like, I’ll say, elevating even more so the importance of security and layering and security.

00;27;58;01 – 00;28;27;02
Dux
That’s right. In, in when we think about security traditionally, right, people think about security either from an endpoint, perspective network, you know, device level. But now data data security is certainly top of mind. Know when we talk about data, we sometimes we only think about structured data. But unstructured data is all over your email your chats, your files, your OneDrive documents.

00;28;27;04 – 00;28;35;07
Dux
So it is it is a top of mind for a lot of leaders and organizations, especially now. They’re pushing more stuff into the cloud.

00;28;35;09 – 00;28;57;20
Vince
So I mentioned that being an award winning partner, all the work that you’ve done. And again, the relationship with Microsoft, is very strong relationship that you’ve had over the years. These organizations that watch and follow along with us. So they’re all trying to figure it out their journey. Right. So what advice would you have for these partners watching and listening us with us today about optimizing for their success?

00;28;57;23 – 00;29;16;22
Dux
I would say, I have 3 or 4 things that I can share is number one is really be willing to work together to achieve your goals in start with something quick and small. In small may be relative, right? But you don’t need to come all. Let’s come up with our business plan for the next six months. Or yeah.

00;29;16;24 – 00;29;17;17
Vince
The three year plan.

00;29;17;17 – 00;29;37;04
Dux
You know, start with something for the next three months. You started one thing, right? And then iterate on that and see if it works. Even though both, on paper, the mutual benefits may look good, but you may find out. Yeah. I don’t really work well with Vince. Right. So but but come up with a project and be willing to work together right away and give those goals.

00;29;37;06 – 00;29;43;15
Dux
Second is be very patient understanding because what you know what stuff will go wrong for sure.

00;29;43;18 – 00;29;44;01
Vince
Yes.

00;29;44;01 – 00;30;02;12
Dux
And that’s okay. That’s part of just the human experience. Right. Again, on paper, on technology it may look perfect, but miscommunication may happen or certain people may drop something and and that’s perfectly fine. It’s no different than how we interact internally.

00;30;02;16 – 00;30;05;09
Vince
That’s right. When you and you know when to pivot. Yeah that point.

00;30;05;12 – 00;30;06;20
Dux
And that’s that’s part of the growth.

00;30;06;24 – 00;30;08;14
Vince
It’s part of the growth mindset. Yeah.

00;30;08;17 – 00;30;32;23
Dux
And then lastly I would say be willing to take risk. You know, your solution or what you’re trying to do. Your go to market may not be 100% foolproof, but time is of the essence. We’ve seen, as you mentioned, the last 18 months, stuff changed so fast, so fast. So as long as you have a good understanding, an idea where you want to get to take risks, just do something.

00;30;32;26 – 00;30;33;29
Dux
Yeah. And then pivot.

00;30;34;01 – 00;30;51;03
Vince
I love it, I love it. So I love to ask a personal question. Yes, you might know and I don’t know if I ever asked you this one before, but, I’d love to do it now. Now that we’re in the studio, you’re hosting a dinner party, and you can invite any three guests from the present or the past to this amazing dinner party.

00;30;51;03 – 00;30;59;17
Vince
Ducks. We could talk about the menu and the location as well. I’d love to hear more about that. Whom would you invite? Why?

00;30;59;20 – 00;31;03;20
Dux
Wow. This, this. How many people is it? Three.

00;31;03;20 – 00;31;04;06
Vince
Three?

00;31;04;07 – 00;31;10;19
Dux
Three people. I think.

00;31;10;22 – 00;31;18;07
Dux
The person. Okay, okay. A couple people that comes to mind. The first person that comes to mind is Tim Berners-Lee, right? Yeah.

00;31;18;09 – 00;31;22;29
Vince
Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. We’re taking people back a few years.

00;31;23;01 – 00;31;30;23
Dux
You know, Tim Berners-Lee, the internet, he invented the World Wide Web. Yes. So because of him.

00;31;30;26 – 00;31;42;09
Dux
The internet’s so popular because prior to him, everything was text based. It’s all for the geeks. And what Tim Berners-Lee did he open the world to the possibilities of the internet and.

00;31;42;10 – 00;31;44;16
Vince
Now the ability to access.

00;31;44;19 – 00;32;00;22
Dux
Yeah, but not only did he do that, why? Why I want to invite him. Because he didn’t make money off of it. Yeah. I think to this day he’s still a professor up in the northeast, and he still drives his old car.

00;32;00;23 – 00;32;03;11
Vince
Yeah, but like an old Subaru or something.

00;32;03;11 – 00;32;07;17
Dux
Or Toyota Corolla or something. Yeah, but a lot of people made tons of money off of.

00;32;07;17 – 00;32;10;00
Vince
His billions and billions and billions. Yes.

00;32;10;02 – 00;32;28;19
Dux
What I would love to learn is how does he feel about that? Right. I’m sure he’s happy. I’m sure he’s humble about it. Because if he didn’t, if he was upset, we would have heard it. Yeah, but because of that one moment, look at where we are today.

00;32;28;19 – 00;32;30;17
Vince
It’s it’s incredible.

00;32;30;20 – 00;32;37;21
Dux
second person is, I would say, you know, it may sound cliche, but Mother Teresa.

00;32;37;24 – 00;32;40;23
Vince
Interesting.

00;32;40;25 – 00;32;49;23
Dux
because if you, if you look at her life, her background, and. But what she did, it’s this heart of service is this heart of giving back. Yeah. When you talk about.

00;32;49;23 – 00;32;51;16
Vince
Working with lepers, I mean.

00;32;51;23 – 00;33;14;09
Dux
The, the the this the, the, the people who the world shunned. Yeah. Don’t care for. How can you get that? Right? Like I always talk about. We always pay forward. We give back. because life is too short not to give back. Yeah. Especially what we do. Right. But. But to that extent, I don’t know, like, how could she have done that?

00;33;14;09 – 00;33;15;02
Dux
I want that, right.

00;33;15;02 – 00;33;15;27
Vince
Yeah.

00;33;15;29 – 00;33;33;16
Dux
And, I think, I think the last person is, is my late dad, my late father, he, he sacrificed a lot. And, you know, he he passed away when he was quite young. So there’s now that my son’s going to college.

00;33;33;20 – 00;33;34;24
Vince
Yeah, yeah, the.

00;33;34;24 – 00;33;38;17
Dux
Conversations I’ve had with my son. I wish I had that with my late father.

00;33;38;17 – 00;33;43;00
Vince
Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, I understand, that’s awesome. What a great dinner party.

00;33;43;02 – 00;33;44;10
Dux
It’s going to be awesome.

00;33;44;13 – 00;33;47;04
Vince
Where? Yeah, we’re going to host us.

00;33;47;06 – 00;33;51;18
Dux
I’ll cook. Okay. Love cooking. So it’ll be at my house and you’re invited to.

00;33;51;19 – 00;33;58;22
Vince
I was going to say I can bring dessert. there. You bring dessert, I’ll bring, we’ll cook maybe cookies or something. We’ll figure out what Mother Teresa likes.

00;33;58;22 – 00;33;59;09
Dux
That’s right.

00;33;59;12 – 00;34;21;02
Vince
But, what a great. Yeah, yeah, a humble group. But, you know, you think about, like, people where we worry about, like, making the the billion dollars, right? So many young people aspire to this. I think it’s probably one of the reasons why we talk about mental health. and always comparing yourself. No. None of the people you mentioned were millionaire millionaires and billionaires, but they had an I had an impact on the world.

00;34;21;02 – 00;34;45;12
Dux
That’s right. You know, the way I think about look, money is not bad at all. But the way I think about money is, yeah, it’d be great to have money so we can give back more. We can help more. Yeah. Now, I’m not sure about, you know, different people have different, goals and but for me, if, if I’ve given the opportunity to you, you know, earn more.

00;34;45;12 – 00;34;48;22
Dux
And that’s a great opportunity to help more. Yeah. Give more back.

00;34;48;22 – 00;35;12;19
Vince
So you always struck me as somebody who is of service to others. And I appreciate all the things you and your friendship all these years. one more question. We’re at that midway point, a 2024. I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. I was just wishing you Happy New Year. Seems like yesterday. One last piece of advice for, like, for those partners that need to lean in, what would you say to them?

00;35;12;19 – 00;35;16;05
Vince
Like, what do they need to do this second half of the year?

00;35;16;08 – 00;35;33;25
Dux
I think I copilot is really hot. A lot of customers are hungry to get going and a lot of customers don’t know where to start. Jump right in. That’s just jump right in. Don’t overthink it or else you’ll miss the window.

00;35;33;27 – 00;35;55;03
Vince
Yeah, it’s a big opportunity. Yeah. Dax, thank you so much for being an incredible guest again. And we did hit the record button this time, I promise. I want to thank each of you for your support, for following, listening, and supporting the Ultimate Partner for seven and a half years now. Wow. it has been an incredible journey.

00;35;55;06 – 00;36;12;12
Vince
And for those of you watching, hopefully you’re watching on our new YouTube channel, please subscribe. The more subscribers we get to YouTube, the more we get to feature amazing guests like ducks on this podcast. So thank you for joining ducks. Great to see you again today. Thank you. Thanks for coming to Boca for that.

00;36;12;13 – 00;36;13;00
Dux
Thank you.

00;36;13;00 – 00;36;44;26
Vince
Thank you. If you’re part of the movement, you know, I have a very strong point of view. I’ve sat on both sides of the table for over 30 years now. I built growth through partnerships and PC, internet, cloud, mobile, AI marketplaces, and more. I’ve also seen the demise of organizations that are resistant to change. I’m part of the community, special interest groups and associations, and I don’t see one place that mirrors the ecosystem and brings it all together.

00;36;44;29 – 00;37;08;16
Vince
You see, I see a vibrant world where hyperscalers, builders, ISV sellers, SES, MSPs and other partners come together to spark the ecosystem’s growth. I’ve talked to many of you, and what I continually hear is it’s noisy. I don’t know whom to listen to and where to go. There’s a massive opportunity, but I’m not sure how to get there.

00;37;08;18 – 00;37;23;27
Vince
Well, you’ve been heard. We’re getting ready to open the doors early to pilot this new experience. We want this to be your place with your feedback and participation. If you’re a builder, an innovator, or a leader, visit our website.