Guest Speaker:
Transcripts
A very warm welcome to a brand new episode of this Birlasoft podcast, Tech Lyceum, which is coming straight from the Bmarc manufacturing series. Now on this episode, we're going to be talking about manufacturing on Cloud, how cloud infrastructure is architecting enterprise digital transformation. Now we've got two very special guests on the episode. Our first guest is no stranger to this series. In fact, he's our resident speaker. I think I can call him at this point our very own Paul Menig, a thought leader and Senior Principal Consultant at Birlasoft Manifacturing VBU. Paul has some very vast experience across various industries including manufacturing, medical, defense, aerospace and transportation. Also joining us on this episode is Ashutosh Mankar. Now Ashutosh is currently the head of the cloud and infrastructure services business at Biralsoft so I can think of no one better to be joining us on today's episode with well over three decades of experience in IT infrastructure services, Ashutosh has led numerous client engagements to drive digital transformation, accelerated cloud adoption and enhanced service operations outcomes across IT infrastructure. Very pleased to have these two gentlemen with us today, Paul welcome and Ashutosh its nice to have you here for the first time.
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Speaker – Paul – 01:34
Thank you. It's great to be here with you and with Ashutosh, it should be a great conversation.
Thank you. It's great to be here with you and with Ashutosh, it should be a great conversation.
Speaker – Ashutosh – 01:39
Thank you for the kind introduction, and it's a pleasure to be here, looking forward to the conversation.
Thank you for the kind introduction, and it's a pleasure to be here, looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker – Neerja – 01:45
Well, us too. So let me with that. Start off with a question to Paul. Maybe you can kick things off
Q: With cloud migration skyrocketing in the past few years, Paul, what do you think are the actual business drivers, steering, you know, the cloud adoption for manufacturers.
Well, us too. So let me with that. Start off with a question to Paul. Maybe you can kick things off
Q: With cloud migration skyrocketing in the past few years, Paul, what do you think are the actual business drivers, steering, you know, the cloud adoption for manufacturers.
Speaker – Paul – 02:03
Thank you. That's that's a really good question. Data from past implementations are showing two key things related to digital transformations in general and moving to the cloud. One is that it cannot be an it only cost reduction initiative, the real value comes from enabling better processes in other departments. And second, that real value is amplified by what the other departments can do once a strong base of applications are located in the cloud. Some foundational applications, for instance, for the cloud infrastructure are the ERP, the MES or MLM and the CRM, customer relationship management, a cloud based enterprise resource planning, allows better interface with outside organizations so that you can be able to deal with constantly changing supply chain issues right now. Similarly, being able to connect with the customers in the cloud is easier to keep the customer informed and understanding the status of their orders with the better information. It's possible to daily change the plan for production based on the materials available. This helps to increase the product that is shippable and billable, while keeping all of the customers informed of the daily changes. Now on the cost reduction side, the cloud frees up physical space in the plant which could be used for inventory storage or expanding the operations and investing in the cloud turns depreciated capital into a monthly expense, which is improving then the enterprise value and freeing up capital for other priorities. Now, the backbone in the plants are often hardwired connections to terminals in the offices. Now those offices can now be off site, freeing up floor space for more operations. Then having personnel off site is enabling by cloud based systems that have superior reliability, regular backups and outstanding cybersecurity. What I see is the scale of the outside providers allows this level of service at lower costs, employing higher skilled personnel in their operations. Further the IT infrastructure itself is scalable, both up and down as the company requires, such as when an acquisition occurs or a carve out is done. And you may remember, in the first podcast, we talked about decarbonization. Outsourcing to the cloud is going to help with those goals as well.
Thank you. That's that's a really good question. Data from past implementations are showing two key things related to digital transformations in general and moving to the cloud. One is that it cannot be an it only cost reduction initiative, the real value comes from enabling better processes in other departments. And second, that real value is amplified by what the other departments can do once a strong base of applications are located in the cloud. Some foundational applications, for instance, for the cloud infrastructure are the ERP, the MES or MLM and the CRM, customer relationship management, a cloud based enterprise resource planning, allows better interface with outside organizations so that you can be able to deal with constantly changing supply chain issues right now. Similarly, being able to connect with the customers in the cloud is easier to keep the customer informed and understanding the status of their orders with the better information. It's possible to daily change the plan for production based on the materials available. This helps to increase the product that is shippable and billable, while keeping all of the customers informed of the daily changes. Now on the cost reduction side, the cloud frees up physical space in the plant which could be used for inventory storage or expanding the operations and investing in the cloud turns depreciated capital into a monthly expense, which is improving then the enterprise value and freeing up capital for other priorities. Now, the backbone in the plants are often hardwired connections to terminals in the offices. Now those offices can now be off site, freeing up floor space for more operations. Then having personnel off site is enabling by cloud based systems that have superior reliability, regular backups and outstanding cybersecurity. What I see is the scale of the outside providers allows this level of service at lower costs, employing higher skilled personnel in their operations. Further the IT infrastructure itself is scalable, both up and down as the company requires, such as when an acquisition occurs or a carve out is done. And you may remember, in the first podcast, we talked about decarbonization. Outsourcing to the cloud is going to help with those goals as well.
Speaker – Neerja – 04:47
Okay, you make some very, very valid points there, Paul. And Ashutosh, I have this question for you,
Q: What do you think are the specific manufacturing use cases which are helping manufacturers realize Mac. Maximum value with cloud at speed and scale. Could you share some of these with us?
Okay, you make some very, very valid points there, Paul. And Ashutosh, I have this question for you,
Q: What do you think are the specific manufacturing use cases which are helping manufacturers realize Mac. Maximum value with cloud at speed and scale. Could you share some of these with us?
Speaker – Ashutosh – 05:04
Sure, you know, the quest for the killer app continues, right? That sweet spot utilization of cloud, but let me be a little contrarian here, right? The business use cases are obvious, but let me look at it a little differently here, right? While cloud business case is primarily based on efficiency, flexibility and differentiation. Here's a suggestion to manufacturers, right? Look at low hanging fruit. First, a good place to start is with with SaaS offerings. SaaS offerings for non differentiated services. So what I mean by non differentiated services are the services are not different from one manufacturer to the other. You know, for example, take office 365 or n 365 you'd be surprised how many customers are not really used, utilizing it and deriving value from a relatively standardized service. And that's an opportunity. The same goes for non differentiated. And I'm when I say non differentiated, I don't mean not critical functions, like HR, right? SAS is a good opportunity. Now this is going to free up you're going to go to cloud. You're going to free up resources. You know, Paul mentioned physical resources, but this is also intellectual resources, human capital to do other things. This will also give you time to create those killer app business cases right on on on Cloud, it'll give you the time to think about it, to plan for it and put together strategic investments that are required. So those investments are not just money, but they're also also time, time of your employees. Now if you look at value realization from cloud, it varies from manufacturing segment to manufacturing segment, but if you look broadly across the manufacturing segment, okay, the the obvious ones are something that Paul mentioned, and that's connection with your stakeholder ecosystem, connection with your customers, connection with your suppliers, deep integration with with your supply chain and being able to derive efficiencies. There another great area is customer service. You know, be able to drive customer service into your customers promises and derive value from it. Not only derive value from it, improve customer experience, drop the cost of those services and potentially harness new revenue streams. So for example, heavy machinery, right? If you're a heavy machinery manufacturer and you have earth movers out there, now that's a great use case for a cloud application that goes out and reaches out to these earth movers and schedule service around them. So that's that's an important one, right? The importance of this use case is many fold. It's about quality control. It's about reducing cost of services and improving customer experience. You know, at birlasoft, you know, we've done this with a lot of our customers, where we have worked at articulating the business case, implementing the business case, and then be able to provide services through a life cycle of that business case. There's one more thing that I do want to leave behind. Right? Is very tempting to use Cloud migration as a vehicle to retire technical debt, but that's not the only thing it does. It provides differentiation and competitive differentiation, so you have to be able to balance between the two.
Sure, you know, the quest for the killer app continues, right? That sweet spot utilization of cloud, but let me be a little contrarian here, right? The business use cases are obvious, but let me look at it a little differently here, right? While cloud business case is primarily based on efficiency, flexibility and differentiation. Here's a suggestion to manufacturers, right? Look at low hanging fruit. First, a good place to start is with with SaaS offerings. SaaS offerings for non differentiated services. So what I mean by non differentiated services are the services are not different from one manufacturer to the other. You know, for example, take office 365 or n 365 you'd be surprised how many customers are not really used, utilizing it and deriving value from a relatively standardized service. And that's an opportunity. The same goes for non differentiated. And I'm when I say non differentiated, I don't mean not critical functions, like HR, right? SAS is a good opportunity. Now this is going to free up you're going to go to cloud. You're going to free up resources. You know, Paul mentioned physical resources, but this is also intellectual resources, human capital to do other things. This will also give you time to create those killer app business cases right on on on Cloud, it'll give you the time to think about it, to plan for it and put together strategic investments that are required. So those investments are not just money, but they're also also time, time of your employees. Now if you look at value realization from cloud, it varies from manufacturing segment to manufacturing segment, but if you look broadly across the manufacturing segment, okay, the the obvious ones are something that Paul mentioned, and that's connection with your stakeholder ecosystem, connection with your customers, connection with your suppliers, deep integration with with your supply chain and being able to derive efficiencies. There another great area is customer service. You know, be able to drive customer service into your customers promises and derive value from it. Not only derive value from it, improve customer experience, drop the cost of those services and potentially harness new revenue streams. So for example, heavy machinery, right? If you're a heavy machinery manufacturer and you have earth movers out there, now that's a great use case for a cloud application that goes out and reaches out to these earth movers and schedule service around them. So that's that's an important one, right? The importance of this use case is many fold. It's about quality control. It's about reducing cost of services and improving customer experience. You know, at birlasoft, you know, we've done this with a lot of our customers, where we have worked at articulating the business case, implementing the business case, and then be able to provide services through a life cycle of that business case. There's one more thing that I do want to leave behind. Right? Is very tempting to use Cloud migration as a vehicle to retire technical debt, but that's not the only thing it does. It provides differentiation and competitive differentiation, so you have to be able to balance between the two.
Speaker – Neerja – 08:17
That's some very interesting perspective Ashutosh. And of course, on any path to success, there may be a few roadblocks. So Paul,
Q: What are some roadblocks when it comes to cloud adoption, and how can manufacturers overcome them?
That's some very interesting perspective Ashutosh. And of course, on any path to success, there may be a few roadblocks. So Paul,
Q: What are some roadblocks when it comes to cloud adoption, and how can manufacturers overcome them?
Speaker – Paul - 08:30
Honestly, I don't see anything that I would call a roadblock. Maybe a few construction zones and some wet pavement, but not roadblocks. But as with any project, there are people involved, and people are reluctant to change. So understanding from the start what you want to accomplish and how you will measure success is important. It helps then to get everyone working together. Burlesoft tends to call this a value generating cloud transformation journey rather long statement. It's a strategy that focuses on the value, not cost reduction, and something that Ashutosh said, think about the core competency of your company. If your core competency is not IT, then considering the cloud is going to be a very good investment. Now getting back to challenges, though, there are a few that are going to come out along the way. One of them is government regulations such as the GDPR in Europe, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the and for medical items, the HIPAA compliance. Now I see public cloud services as better positioned to deal with these issues of privacy and storage of data within individual countries by providing servers in multiple locations that meet the regulations that are imposed for keeping data where it must be kept. Another issue is the cybersecurity of data. First, the data must be protected inside the walls of the factory, and then from the factory to the cloud, there are multiple protocols now existing for getting data from machines securely that are often dependent on the manufacturer of the equipment, such as, for instance, Modbus, TCP, but there are open communications architectures and APIs available now. Each of the cloud providers, the public cloud providers, have addressed this as well with secure protocols such as OPC UA, which is an IEC standard, from what I've seen with cybersecurity attacks, scams and phishing, I'd argue that your data is more secure and confidential when managed in the cloud by a public provider with the resources and skills to protect it and back it up regularly and have multiple energy sources in case of power outages. Now some people rightfully worry about being dependent on a single provider. Now, many companies have then elected to use multiple cloud providers for different applications. That solves one problem, but it does make integration of data and mining of data across applications a tad more difficult. Now, finally, there's still the issue of how quickly you must access the data and how quickly it needs to be processed. You need to find the right balance of edge computing, on site computing and cloud computing. Consider all the issues that we've discussed here. The right answer may well be a private cloud for large manufacturers, a hybrid cloud for medium enterprises and smaller businesses will opt for a cloud native architecture.
Honestly, I don't see anything that I would call a roadblock. Maybe a few construction zones and some wet pavement, but not roadblocks. But as with any project, there are people involved, and people are reluctant to change. So understanding from the start what you want to accomplish and how you will measure success is important. It helps then to get everyone working together. Burlesoft tends to call this a value generating cloud transformation journey rather long statement. It's a strategy that focuses on the value, not cost reduction, and something that Ashutosh said, think about the core competency of your company. If your core competency is not IT, then considering the cloud is going to be a very good investment. Now getting back to challenges, though, there are a few that are going to come out along the way. One of them is government regulations such as the GDPR in Europe, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the and for medical items, the HIPAA compliance. Now I see public cloud services as better positioned to deal with these issues of privacy and storage of data within individual countries by providing servers in multiple locations that meet the regulations that are imposed for keeping data where it must be kept. Another issue is the cybersecurity of data. First, the data must be protected inside the walls of the factory, and then from the factory to the cloud, there are multiple protocols now existing for getting data from machines securely that are often dependent on the manufacturer of the equipment, such as, for instance, Modbus, TCP, but there are open communications architectures and APIs available now. Each of the cloud providers, the public cloud providers, have addressed this as well with secure protocols such as OPC UA, which is an IEC standard, from what I've seen with cybersecurity attacks, scams and phishing, I'd argue that your data is more secure and confidential when managed in the cloud by a public provider with the resources and skills to protect it and back it up regularly and have multiple energy sources in case of power outages. Now some people rightfully worry about being dependent on a single provider. Now, many companies have then elected to use multiple cloud providers for different applications. That solves one problem, but it does make integration of data and mining of data across applications a tad more difficult. Now, finally, there's still the issue of how quickly you must access the data and how quickly it needs to be processed. You need to find the right balance of edge computing, on site computing and cloud computing. Consider all the issues that we've discussed here. The right answer may well be a private cloud for large manufacturers, a hybrid cloud for medium enterprises and smaller businesses will opt for a cloud native architecture.
Speaker – Neerja – 11:50
Okay, interesting, just a few things to carefully consider, and not roadblocks as such, like you, rightly said, just some traffic cones that we need to tactically maneuver with that, Ashutosh. One final question to you,
Q: With multiple cloud service providers and service integrators in the market, what do you think should be the major selection criteria manufacturers should have to be able to choose the right partner for this enterprise level transformation?
Okay, interesting, just a few things to carefully consider, and not roadblocks as such, like you, rightly said, just some traffic cones that we need to tactically maneuver with that, Ashutosh. One final question to you,
Q: With multiple cloud service providers and service integrators in the market, what do you think should be the major selection criteria manufacturers should have to be able to choose the right partner for this enterprise level transformation?
Speaker – Ashutosh – 12:18
That's an excellent question, and that requires some parsing, and the way that I'll parse it is into three parts. Okay, so one is to look at the cloud providers, then to look at service providers and integrators separately as three different parts. Let me look at the hype, the cloud providers, or the hyper scalars, as they're called, right? The differentiation between them actually shrinking day by day. They may not agree with you, but that is the reality. And it will also be prudent for manufacturers to consider the fact that they are going to be multi cloud sometime in the future. For some people, it will be the near future. For other people, it will be the medium future. Some people are long term future, but that is the reality. You are going to be multi cloud, right? So horses for courses, so to speak, right? Your choices are going to be driven by application architecture, security, posture, by capabilities, and that's what is going to drive it. It's not going to be driven by one cloud is better than the other. That's one part of it that's looking at the cloud service providers. You know, in terms of service providers and integrators, one decision criteria is obvious, and that is domain expertise. It's important to bring that domain expertise to the table, to be able to see that domain expertise available at the table at all times, right? Because that is going to certainly drive the efficacy, the efficiency and accuracy of solutions through context and understanding. So that's an obvious one, but let me talk a little bit about service providers, cloud service providers specifically, but service providers in general, this applies to right? It is prudent for manufacturers, in fact, all clients, to look at service providers who are willing to put skill in the game, okay, who are willing to underwrite outcomes and outputs, not inputs, and who are willing to provide metered services for run services, So day two services in your day to ongoing services in a metered fashion, right? So you're not paying a fixed price, but you're paying for what you consume, just like the cloud providers. That's important. It is also important when you're looking at a service provider partner, to look at software capabilities that come to the table. In addition to the skills, skills are important, you need to have a good, sustainable workforce to be able to to sustain services that you will consume. Having said that, the software, and when I say software, I'm talking about management software, I'm talking about monitoring software. I'm talking about AI ops. I'm talking about automation. What are those capabilities? What are those competencies the service provider brings to the table and brings to bed to deliver services to your organization? What are the investments that they are making? I think that's an important you know piece to look at. You know, this, this management software, this monitoring software, this is underlying fabric needs to extend across not just cloud, but also security, the applications that you put on cloud, and increasingly, IoT. So these are going to be an integrated fabric that you should be able to see. You know, for instance, at birlasoft, this is an investment we are making to create that underlying fabric. So when we go to our clients and talk about these services, about ongoing services, we bring to bear not only skills, but the platform itself. The other thing that is important to keep in mind in terms of system integrators, in order to keep in mind strategic alignments the SIS have with domain specific technology partners. Think about NES, think about factory automation and those class of applications.
That's an excellent question, and that requires some parsing, and the way that I'll parse it is into three parts. Okay, so one is to look at the cloud providers, then to look at service providers and integrators separately as three different parts. Let me look at the hype, the cloud providers, or the hyper scalars, as they're called, right? The differentiation between them actually shrinking day by day. They may not agree with you, but that is the reality. And it will also be prudent for manufacturers to consider the fact that they are going to be multi cloud sometime in the future. For some people, it will be the near future. For other people, it will be the medium future. Some people are long term future, but that is the reality. You are going to be multi cloud, right? So horses for courses, so to speak, right? Your choices are going to be driven by application architecture, security, posture, by capabilities, and that's what is going to drive it. It's not going to be driven by one cloud is better than the other. That's one part of it that's looking at the cloud service providers. You know, in terms of service providers and integrators, one decision criteria is obvious, and that is domain expertise. It's important to bring that domain expertise to the table, to be able to see that domain expertise available at the table at all times, right? Because that is going to certainly drive the efficacy, the efficiency and accuracy of solutions through context and understanding. So that's an obvious one, but let me talk a little bit about service providers, cloud service providers specifically, but service providers in general, this applies to right? It is prudent for manufacturers, in fact, all clients, to look at service providers who are willing to put skill in the game, okay, who are willing to underwrite outcomes and outputs, not inputs, and who are willing to provide metered services for run services, So day two services in your day to ongoing services in a metered fashion, right? So you're not paying a fixed price, but you're paying for what you consume, just like the cloud providers. That's important. It is also important when you're looking at a service provider partner, to look at software capabilities that come to the table. In addition to the skills, skills are important, you need to have a good, sustainable workforce to be able to to sustain services that you will consume. Having said that, the software, and when I say software, I'm talking about management software, I'm talking about monitoring software. I'm talking about AI ops. I'm talking about automation. What are those capabilities? What are those competencies the service provider brings to the table and brings to bed to deliver services to your organization? What are the investments that they are making? I think that's an important you know piece to look at. You know, this, this management software, this monitoring software, this is underlying fabric needs to extend across not just cloud, but also security, the applications that you put on cloud, and increasingly, IoT. So these are going to be an integrated fabric that you should be able to see. You know, for instance, at birlasoft, this is an investment we are making to create that underlying fabric. So when we go to our clients and talk about these services, about ongoing services, we bring to bear not only skills, but the platform itself. The other thing that is important to keep in mind in terms of system integrators, in order to keep in mind strategic alignments the SIS have with domain specific technology partners. Think about NES, think about factory automation and those class of applications.
Speaker – Neerja – 15:47
Well, thank you so much for your valuable thoughts and Ashutosh mankar and Paul menig, everybody bringing us their take on manufacturing, on cloud and how cloud infrastructure is architecting enterprise digital transformation, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure having you on.
Well, thank you so much for your valuable thoughts and Ashutosh mankar and Paul menig, everybody bringing us their take on manufacturing, on cloud and how cloud infrastructure is architecting enterprise digital transformation, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure having you on.
Speaker – Ashutosh – 16:05
Yes, thank you very much. I enjoyed the conversation. Hopefully we can do it again.
Yes, thank you very much. I enjoyed the conversation. Hopefully we can do it again.
Speaker – Paul - 16:09
Thank you. And I guess one last thing, go to the cloud.
Thank you. And I guess one last thing, go to the cloud.
Speaker – Ashutosh - 16:13
Absolutely
Absolutely
Speaker – Neerja – 16:14
That’s Great advice.
That’s Great advice.
Speaker – Neerja – 16:25
Well, my head is now safely in the clouds thinking about all things cloud. I hope you found this episode as interesting as I did. My thanks once again to Paul Manik and Ashutosh mankar for joining us today. And remember, Cloud has value in both IT and business, and it really has become imperative for every business now, businesses must adjust their IT management strategy to complement what cloud offers. I'll leave you with that and catch you on a brand new episode next time on Tech Lyceum, until then, it's bye, bye. From me.
Well, my head is now safely in the clouds thinking about all things cloud. I hope you found this episode as interesting as I did. My thanks once again to Paul Manik and Ashutosh mankar for joining us today. And remember, Cloud has value in both IT and business, and it really has become imperative for every business now, businesses must adjust their IT management strategy to complement what cloud offers. I'll leave you with that and catch you on a brand new episode next time on Tech Lyceum, until then, it's bye, bye. From me.
You were listening to tech Lyceum, a podcast from Birlasoft.
