Business Challenges, Robo Dentistry and Blockchain Solutions – Digital CxO Podcast EP87

Hello and welcome to the Digital six. So podcast. I'm Amanda Ani, and with me today is Mike Baard.

How are you doing? I'm doing great as always. Well, we have some really fun things to talk about today.

We're gonna start off with an article, legacy Challenges, hamper It, evolution, composability, and of course we're always talking about the legacy technology challenges. So what are you hearing from business leaders when it comes to this? I think legacy has become code for ball and chain.

Um, the issue is, as always, we need to modernize those systems in a way that if we're not gonna outright replace them, then we're gonna put some usable APIs in front of 'em that somebody can invoke to drive a digital process. And, um, you know, the article kind of makes it clear that we wanna get to this composable enterprise idea. And the basic theory is that I should be able to compose and orchestrate a series of digital processes without necessarily, um, having to call in a small army of people that do the integration work, right?

I mean, there's always gonna be some level of integration work, but it should involve APIs and connectors and not anything more complicated than that. And then if you have those things, you can then create engines that sit above them and orchestrate these processes. And ultimately, if there is some sort of change in the business, it it's not this gut wrenching adventure to go adjust to it.

It's kind of like, okay, we're gonna go back in and re-engineer this thing. And we measure that now in days and weeks and not weeks and months. And I feel like a big part of the problem when anything and welding legacy systems these days is that we're measuring things in months and years.

And of course we hear from some companies sometimes they're just hanging onto these legacy systems and, and maybe it'd be best to just cut them loose. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think yeah, if you can do that, you probably should just 'cause the weight of the thing over time will, uh, crush not only your wallet but your soul.

Um, that said, um, there are certain legacy platforms, AKA mainframes where you've got capabilities you still can't get somewhere else. And I might have an application that we built that the business revolves around, and that's crucial. But that doesn't mean that that system shouldn't be programmatically accessed via an API by some other team that's trying to build some app that invokes that application that sits on that mainframe.

And, and maybe it's just this siloed thinking in it that has taken hold over the years, but everybody seems to think, uh, well I'm managing my platform and I'm managing my platform without realizing within the context that their platform is part of a, a scope of things that make the company run and they need to spend a little more time making that platform more friendly to the other parts of the business. Absolutely. So now we're gonna talk about measuring value.

This is an article on digital CXO entitled Measuring Digital Transformation Success Key Metrics for 2024. And it goes on to list some different ways to measure, um, that return on investment and whether or not, um, companies are being successful. So can you share your thoughts on this article?

Right. We have another article that goes with it. It's, uh, Broadcom, uh, launched a value stream management platform.

And for those of you that do not know what value stream is, it traces its history back to lean manufacturing and it's the idea that, um, we are gonna be able to keep track of the inputs and outputs and observe what's going on and measure those accordingly. We're essentially now trying to apply those concepts to digital business transformation initiatives. And I feel like these went on in two phases.

Uh, for that matter, we actually talked about this on the Textron Gang last week, so if to get a moment to go check that out. But, um, the thing of it is, is the first phase of digital transformation felt like, well, let's go build a bunch of new things to drive additional revenue. And then Covid came and everybody shifted towards, well, let's go back in and optimize processes that exist today and we'll digitize those and we'll make the company more efficient.

And that's great, arguably, maybe we're in the cusp of the third wave of that with the rise of ai, but what is the metrics that we're using to measure these things? And there's a disconnect still between the things that it people measure and the things that business leaders measure. And we need to kinda synchronize these things finally and get to the point where, well, is this digital thing that we went and did successful or not?

And if it's not successful to the business, well what needs to change? And if it is, how do we replicate it? And these are kind on a one level of fundamental concepts, but it's just amazing how many businesses don't seem to be able to wrap their arms around it.

And I don't know if it's because, you know, people don't get it. Rather, I think there's something wrong with the, the way our groups are organized and the way our teams are organized where nobody kind of takes a step back and just goes, uh, you know, we own this thing as a business, so what did we see out of this thing? I mean, I'm probably their CFOs that are doing that, but um, you know, they're measuring revenue and profit, but their ability to track that directly back to a particular workflow, probably not so good.

So I just think, you know, we need to go in and figure out, hey, is all this stuff that we're doing making a difference? I'm pretty sure it is, but it would be nice to know how. Yeah.

And I think it starts with all the different departments understanding the end goal, having a clear understanding of what is the end outcome supposed to be. Well, it all depends on whether or not they're rewarded on the same thing, and you'd be surprised how often that's not the case. True.

So next we're gonna talk about Google. They're having some certainly a difficult week, um, as we talked about on Techstrong TV earlier, they are convicted monopolists by the government. And now this week we're talking about, um, them possibly breaking up from Alphabet and some of the other companies that the government's talking about breaking up the company.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think this will happen? Do you think this is, um, showing what's to come for some of the other big tech companies that are on the list to be looked at next?

Yeah, and there is certainly a lot of anti-big tech going around. I don't think breaking up the company is the way to go. I think that there's definitely some issues with did they use profits from one business to go into another?

Uh, and whether or not those profits were, uh, legitimately gained is, you know, probably not in the sense that, you know, you paid somebody like Apple to be the exclusive provider and um, that suggests a level of collusion from a monopoly point of view that perhaps is, uh, just, you know, the courts are still arguing about. No doubt there'll be appeals, but, um, you know, probably not the cleanest way of going around and saying, you know, I won this fair and square that said, um, there are so many businesses today, and particularly digital businesses today, that would not exist if it wasn't for Google. Uh, all the search engine traffic that they generate, um, led to all kinds of e-commerce companies led to all kinds of processes that, uh, were are significant advances that only exist because we are able to go and find these things and discover new businesses and new capabilities that we hadn't seen before.

So to that regard, it's not clear to me that having five more search engine institutions from has gotta make a huge difference in that regard. Now that also said, there are plenty of digital businesses that will tell you that this whole thing about bidding for the right keyword to advertise my businesses outta control because there is only one real source to go to and the the, uh, demand is higher than the supply. So the end result is these are the most important ones.

Price seems to keep going up and that's not helping the smaller businesses that just benefited from the fact that Google existed. So there's a pull me, push me tension here that needs to kind of get sorted out a little bit. I don't know, uh, if and when this conversation is still gonna be relevant when it's all finally settled.

Because if you go look at the rise of these AI capabilities, and it seems to me more and more, whether it's Google or whatever it is, the summary of the thing I'm looking for is being surfaced. And for a lot of people, that's all they need and that's all they're actually reading and nobody's actually going down, uh, defining, uh, you know, five levels deep after I get through the first five ads for the thing that I'm searching for. And I'm certainly not getting past the, you know, it used to be I was lucky if I read 10 now I'm probably not getting past the third.

Um, so you could argue that, uh, in space is gonna be more competitive than ever because Microsoft will have these capabilities and everybody has any kind of, uh, application that is consumer facing could theoretically just expose some AI capability that will make it easier for them to navigate. Um, so I'm not quite clear what the impact of this is. Um, that said, the summaries, you know, everybody who provides a service or a piece of content that went into the say AI summarization is a footnote that I'm sure nobody's reading.

So yeah, the whole space may suffer because, uh, the amount of business that Google is driving or any of these things are driving may decline simply because the end users are just leaning on the summarization and not doing much more than that. Not clear to me how Google ultimately makes money on that, but we'll soon find out. Yeah, and I think part of this is just a direct result of customers.

The users have chosen Google. Uh, it's it's the best on the market so far according to most people, including myself. And that could be just because it is the easiest to use.

We've been using it a while, we know how to get the response we want from it, we know what to prompt it with. But you know, maybe down the road, yes, there might be better options out there. Are you saying that Bing is not the greatest search experience?

I'm amazed. Yeah, I'm definitely saying that. Okay.

I've tried. I give things a chance. I do, I really do.

Um, well moving on, this one's really cool robo dentistry. So we have an article right now called Robo Dentist backed by Z's. Dad performs First procedure.

This is so cool. So the first dental procedure done directly with a robotic arm, it was, um, achieved. Well, everything went smoothly.

And so what's in the future of robots and AI in the medical world? Aren't we already using robots for surgery? So to me it seems like the next natural evolution, um, might make dentistry less expensive for folks.

But I can tell you, so there's two types of dental experiences I've had over the years. One is, yeah, I'm a dentist, they're lovely and you know, it's a traditional experience. You go in and you know, they do their thing.

And other times, especially in some of these pediatric processes, you know, I've taken my child in and there's like, you know, 15 of these chairs, they're all lined up, kind of feels like a barbershop kind of thing. And they're just like working on all these kids simultaneously in this big bullpen kinda area. Well, if we're gonna do that, then let's just put robots in and call it even.

The only problem with that is I think at the moment this is better for more mature adults that can sit still and aren't afraid of the dentist. Uh, it, it, it might be a little problematic. You put younger children in front of a robot arm and and say, be still and let the robot do its work.

Well maybe they just have to knock us all out then and let the robot do its thing. 'cause otherwise it gets a little wiggy. Or maybe they'll just have to give you some sunglasses and turn up the music.

Anyway. It's really cool. It'll be neat to see what the future holds in, in the robot and AI world.

So last step is never lose your luggage again. We have an article on how blockchain can secure and simplify luggage shipping and course blockchain. It keeps things pretty permanently on, on a chain so it makes sense.

This could help in this area along with several other industries. What are your thoughts? Can we get this down to where it's practical to stick on a piece of luggage?

That's what I'm trying to scratch my head about. We have, uh, barcodes over the years and maybe, you know, different types of technologies are coming down to replace barcodes. Who knows?

But, um, how do we practically do this and how does blockchain accomplish that at a level of scale that we can afford? And how does, uh, that negate the need of, I stuck an air tag in my bag and so now I can find my bag wherever it is. And isn't that simpler?

Kinda like this idea, but I often sometimes wonder if maybe, you know, this is the proverbial cannon being fired at a fly or is there other ways to skin this cat? But, um, luggage seems to be missing a lot and seems to be stolen a lot. So for all our barcodes, something's not quite working just yet.

And uh, so I don't know for certain, uh, what the outcome here is, but I do think that we're on the cusp of something. I'm just right. Uh, in the meantime, you know, don't put anything of value in your luggage.

That's what I always say. I for one, do like to use those air tags. I keep those in my luggage.

Um, I, you know, I'm lucky, I should probably knock on some wood. I've never had an issue with lost luggage. I hear about it all the time, but I've never had this issue.

Hopefully never will. But I use those air tags. I will say it would, uh, the article does say it would be a upfront investment.

There'd be a lot of technology involved that would cost a little bit upfront, but that it would directly result in major savings moving forward. Mm-Hmm. And it's not so much that the luggage is lost forever, it's just that, uh, typically and they eventually find it, it probably takes three days.

And of course, you know, unless you buy an entire new wardrobe for that three days, you've been walking around with pretty much the same stuff for two or three days. And I can remember being on a cruise in, uh, Bordeaux in France and some poor couple, uh, their luggage went missing and I think they basically had to wear the same clothes every day. Fortunately the cruise people came in and cleaned their clothes every day.

But I'm sure that was, uh, not a lot of fun on inconvenience. But uh, you know, it's a weird world. Uh, I don't know.

I think, you know, we should be able to solve this problem hopefully before we get flying cars. Yes. And it would also be interesting to see what other applications could blockchain be applied to?

Just who knows? There's lots of use cases for it. Yeah.

I'll give you a great use case. One that I see the value in. Its um, you know, they use it to track diamonds in the providence of those diamonds.

Well, those things are expensive enough that you want to do that. So that makes sense to me. It's just sometimes, uh, yeah, if the value of the thing isn't great enough to make it, the effort to go through all this level of it at it, that I kind of scratch my head and go, well, maybe we're waiting for other iterations of the tech to get less expensive and then we will this.

So this is kind of a proof of concept maybe, I dunno. But mm-hmm. Uh, hopefully cross fingers.

I'm all for any kind of new technology laws. It's affordable. Definitely.

That brings us to the end of our list today. So Mike, what are your last key thoughts? I would just say digital CXOs, and I think you all know this is, you know, you're all being called to account to justify the investments and the things that you're doing.

Um, but if you don't have the analytics tools to do that, then it's all theory and nobody really wants to support theory, especially in tough economic time. So I would spend some time and effort going back in and finding ways to collect the data I need, whether it's metadata, telemetry data, or whatever it is to prove out my case that something made a difference. And here is the benefit of it.

'cause as you all know, know for everybody, dozen people who are trying to resist it. This is true. All right.

Well I wanna thank you, our audience for tuning in every week. Go check out these articles that we mentioned and let us know what is the most interesting to you. And have a great day.

All right everybody, we'll see you next time.