HPE GREENLAKE: DIVING DEEP INTO THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Project partner
HPE GREENLAKE:
DIVING DEEP INTO THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE We speak to Erik Vogel, Global Vice President, Customer Experience at HPE to see how the global, edge-to-cloud Platform-as-a-Service company is transforming the customer journey with GreenLake to provide an ‘everything-asa-service’ offering…
WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY
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Andr ew Woo d s Cr ai g D ani els
HPE GREENLAKE
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or many sectors and enterprises,
the experience we are creating for our
the notion of a customer jour-
partners aligns to their expectations,”
ney, has been virtually non-ex-
explains Erik Vogel, Global Vice Pres-
istent until fairly recently. The digital landscape turned all of that on its head however,
ident, Customer Experience at HPE. Vogel leads the Customer Experience
and now the delivery of a seamless and
Area at HPE with regards to its Green-
painless customer journey can be make-
Lake solutions. “About a year-and-a-half
or-break for every business right now,
ago, I became part of the HPE GreenLake
regardless of sector. No more so, than in
team,” he tells us. “We’re really focused on
the sales of the very hardware, software
customer experience and I think of my-
and services that facilitate the digital realm.
self as something of a customer expe-
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is in the midst of a multi-year transformation to offering their entire portfolio as
rience zealot. I'm customer obsessed, which I have to be, in the markets we’re in.” HPE has been offering a GreenLake-
a service by 2022. This is no small feat,
type model for the past ten years and it
as HPE is a large company offering serv-
was last summer during HPE’s Discover
ers, storage, networking, consulting and
event that Antonio Neri, the HPE CEO,
support as well as financial services. To
made the announcement that the comp-
successfully navigate this pivot, HPE has
any was pivoting to an everything-as-
embraced the importance of a customer’s
a-s ervice company. HPE GreenLake
journey through its many offerings and
brings the cloud experience to apps
services.
and data everywhere, enabling speedy
And HPE is focused on delivering a better
adoption of transformative technol-
customer experience by gaining insights
ogy to simplify operations. GreenLake
from both direct sellers and partners. The
delivers public cloud services and infra-
customer experience needs to extend to
structure-as-a-service on premise, fully
anyone who interacts with the customer,
managed in a pay-per-use model at the
regardless of the logo on their badge. “We
edge, in colocations, and in the client’s
spent time with our key partners like CBTS
data center. “We’re offering everything
that really informed us about the expe-
we have as a service underneath the HPE
rience they need to be successful. We
GreenLake brand,” Vogel explains. “We
lear-ned a lot from these discussions, and
are moving beyond just selling hardware
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HPE GREENLAKE
in a consumption model, to providing it as
loying any of the hardware or software
a true end-to-end service.”
required for the service.”
“As part of the end-to-end service, we
According to Vogel, when we think about
can extend the service to include soft-
as-a-service and how customers want
ware from leading providers. For example,
to consume and use as-a-service solutions,
we can add leading back-up and recov-
it's no longer about speeds and feeds;
ery software from Commvault or Veeam,
a faster processor or a faster server. “Now
on top of our GreenLake infrastructure
it's all about the experience and the out-
to provide a SaaS like experience for our
come,” he claims. “So, we've recognized
customers. In this model, we can give
we need to think differently about how
them a true as-a-service experience, for
we talk and interact with customers, to
backup and recovery, without the cust-
really get that customer obsessed view,
omer every having to worry about dep-
to provide that service with an experience 5
CBTS Client Benefits with HPE GreenLake Solution CBTS is an HPE Platinum and Inner Circle Partner with a strategic relationship in place for 30+ years. CBTS generates over $1 billion in revenue annually by supporting over 3,000 clients in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. CBTS employs 2,000 highly skilled associates holding 260 HPE technical and sales certifications across the entire HPE and Aruba portfolios
THE GREENLAKE PARTNERSHIP: CBTS, HPE
over-provisioning, enabling the client to
AND A GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT FIRM
have instant access to capacity for business
A global asset management firm turned
growth, and most importantly align the
to CBTS for assistance when refreshing
cost of IT infrastructure to the client’s busi-
their data center infrastructure for mul-
ness usage and technology requirements.
tiple locations in the United Kingdom THE IMPACT: A 5 year partnership between THE STORY: A US-based, global integrated
the client, HPE, and CBTS represented by an
asset management company focused on real
HPE GreenLake service agreement executed
estate, credit, equity, and other financial as-
via the HPE GreenLake for Partners program.
sets that serves clients across North America,
The resulting solution for this client is a mod-
Europe, Asia, and Latin America approached
ern, optimized, and agile data center based on
their CBTS support team to assist in address-
an innovative pay-for-use service platform with
ing a challenge for their business. The client
immediate access to on-premises variable ca-
had a need to refresh their data center infra-
pacity ensuring a sustained business outcome.
structure for multiple locations in the United Kingdom. With past refresh projects requiring
WHY CBTS
a significant amount of capital, the client was
The extensive HPE portfolio of products and
seeking an innovative and collaborative solu-
services is critical to our ability to assemble
tion through CBTS. A partnership with CBTS
comprehensive, valuable, and innovative IT
and HPE was required to deliver a solution with
solutions for our clients. By taking advantage
the latest technology, sized effectively to sup-
of HPE certifications, local training events, HPE
port the client needs, and structured to align the
Discover, and webinars our CBTS team is
costs of the refresh and new IT infrastructure
always at the forefront in understanding the
to the business usage. The partnership journey
latest products and innovations available
began with a discovery discussion, assess-
from HPE. Our clients benefit from the CBTS
ment, multiple technology review sessions,
HPE subject matter expertise and our exten-
sizing discussions, platform reviews, a trip to
sive experience in delivering HPE solutions
HPE Discover, and a comprehensive review of
across multiple industries in the global market-
the HPE GreenLake solution.
place. CBTS greatly values our relationships and access to HPE executives, our executive
THE SOLUTION: A thorough review of the
sponsor, partner business managers, and other
client’s IT requirements and technology needs
strategic resources. Our relationship with
determined that the new infrastructure would
HPE enables CBTS to support our valued clients
be optimized by a combination of HPE Synergy,
and earn their business in the most complex
HPE 3PAR, and HPE StoreOnce. The solution
situations while maintaining a trusted advisory
was delivered via an HPE GreenLake service
relationship over the long term.
agreement to eliminate the extensive cost of
“It's very difficult to lay out a CX transformation or a CX journey without understanding where you are today? What does it look like today? Where do you want to get to? What are the customers saying? What are they looking for from you? What do they need from you?” — ERIK VOGEL G L O B A L V I C E P R E S I D E N T, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, HPE
that our customers are demanding. My
some hardware in and let them try it. But in
role is to really focus on the experience.
the services world, it becomes a do-it-them-
Are we providing the right experience?
selves model. They want to kick the tires;
Are we delivering the outcome that our
they want to try and test things. They want
customers are looking for?”
to talk to other developers, or they want
One of the first things HPE tried to under-
to talk to other data scientists about what
stand in terms of the customer journey
they're doing in a community forum. They
was how a customer navigates through
want to pose questions.”
“the awareness phase”; how they learn about the HPE GreenLake service, whether that's through marketing or social media channels or communities or forums. Once through the awareness phase, customer move into a conversion phase, where “Now they've heard about it and they're going through, ‘Is it going to work for me, and do I want to buy it?’ And ultimately making a buying decision and thinking differently about what types of content, collateral and information clients need in the as-a-service world. In our traditional transaction world, we'd send a seller out with a PowerPoint deck or we'd drop 8
HPE GREENLAKE
The next stage of HPE’s investigations into
when I order a pizza, why can't I see my
its customer journey centred around the
order status real time when I've ordered
purchase process. How do they want to
a HPE GreenLake solution?’”
buy? “You think about services, now you
As HPE reconsidered both the conver-
buy with a credit card swipe or an app on
sion and the purchase processes, it organ-
your phone. Even though maybe it's not a
ically led to the building of an experience
direct competitor of ours, one of the things
that its customers were expecting once
we've learned about experience is we're
they’d bought it. How could they stand
now being judged across the broad set of
that up and think differently about getting
experiences our customers interact with.
the infrastructure right? “Customers want
It's no longer just competing against Dell
things fast,” says Vogel. “One of the key
and Lenovo and saying we have a better
pillars of our experience is speed, and
experience than Dell. We have to have an
we don't have time to take 90, 120 days
experience that's on a par with Uber, Apple
to go build hardware and put it through
and Disney, and some of the big banks.
our supply chain and get it to a customer.
Our customers are saying, ‘Hey, if I can
Because they want this as-a-service, the
see my delivery status real time on Domino’s
expectation is ‘we want it right away’. So,
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Follow the Data. Always On. Always Protected. HPE & Veeam LET’S GO
we had to start rethinking that operating
expecting? And bringing in that voice of
process; that end-service that's delivering
the customer to start rethinking what this
an outcome.”
experience needs to look like. We started
The final phase of research and devel-
with understanding the journey map, and
opment involved a focus on ‘renewal and
really defining the journey a customer is on
a growth’. HPE is determined that the cust-
with these six stages we're using: aware-
omer should be “so happy and so delighted
ness, conversion, purchase, initiate, oper-
that they continue to buy it over and over
ate, grow/renew. And that was the first
and add to it because it's been such a
step in really understanding that this is diff-
good experience. “My job has been to
erent to the journeys our customers typi-
understand that end-to-end process and
cally go on if they're buying a transactional
start to rethink how we approach these
product. So, the first step was to lay that out.
six different journey stages our custom-
“The second step was to get the data
ers are going through, relative to what the
and the analytics behind it. It's very difficult
industry’s doing? What are our customers
to lay out a CX transformation or a CX
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HPE GREENLAKE
journey without understanding where you
fast, and whether this is from what they're
are today? What does it look like today?
used to in cloud or SaaS providers that
Where do you want to get to? What are the
they've gotten accustomed to where they
customers saying? What are they look-
can go and sign up and, in a day, or two,
ing for from you? What do they need from
it's up and running. They don't have to buy
you? So, we started with some customer studies commissioned by analysts. We did some of our own customer feedback where we went out and talked to customers and started to bring that together to get a good handle on what customers are looking for from an experience. What would be a great experience in our customers’ minds?”
“ B eing customer-centric, means we’ve got to be listening, watching and understanding what our customers are doing” —
ERIK VOGEL G L O B A L V I C E P R E S I D E N T, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, HPE
Customer experience is perceived, and only the customer can decide if it was a good
hardware and deploy things; they get it
experience or not.”
right away. Or cloud, where they really
As a product company, one of the funda-
could swipe a credit card if they wanted
mental shifts or insights HPE gleaned was
to and have an environment in 10 minutes.
to look beyond speed-to-market by flipping
But speed was paramount because their
the telescope to focus on the customer’s
businesses are accelerating and getting
end view. “When we move to this as-a-ser-
more competitive. The business cycles
vice or the CX model, it's really about
are shortening. What used to be a slow
starting with the customer in view,” Vogel
cycle business is now standard cycle, and
explains. “What's the value we can add to
what's standard cycle is now fast cycle,
the customer? Where do they want to get
and what is fast cycle is hyper fast cycle.
value, because it's not about that faster
Or business cycles are compressing from
server, it's about value to the customer.”
18 months to 12 months to six months, so
A result of commissioning these cust-
they have to work much faster. So, as a
omer viewpoint studies, Vogel and his team
result, speed was critical. We recognize
established what they refer to as their
that a key component of the experience
three North Star principles; the first one
we had to provide was speed and think-
being speed. “So, customers want things
ing about not just whether the processors 13
and equipment is fast, but the end-to-end
for example?’ What kept coming up was,
journey from ‘OK, I've heard about it. Now
‘It's easy. It's simple. It's standardized. It's
I want to test it, I want to demo it, I want
intuitive.’ Whether it's learning about the
to try it. I want to make sure it's going to
service, getting a price for the service,
meet my needs. I want to buy it, I want it
operating the service, provisioning some-
deployed, I want to be operating it and
thing from an operations perspective,
generating value.’ Because every day we
we had to think about each stage of that
delay in getting them that solution, we are
journey and say, ‘How do we make that
delaying the value they're going to cre-
easier and lower effort for our customer?’
ate from that solution. So, speed is critical.”
And understanding that the task of our
The second principle is what Vogel calls
customer is not just operating the envi-
‘low effort’. “So, in the CX world, we talk
ronment, but a customer may come in and
about effort or ease. We have to make
say, ‘Hey, will this interact with my other
things simpler and easier, and when we
environments? And I want to learn about
talk to customers about, ‘Hey, what do
that.’ Or ‘I want to get a price for this solu-
you love about your cloud experience,
tion. I don't want to take a month waiting
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for quotations. I want to be able to do that quickly because I have to move fast." So, we had to think about low-effort, and that was another key component in how we make things easy across every stage of the journey and reduce the amount of effort in the task that our customers are working on. Every interaction has a goal associated with it. They're doing it for some reason, and how do we make it easier to reach that goal?” The third ambition represented the provision of differentiated value. HPE did not want to go out and declare themselves
conversion and purchase, traditionally
another Amazon Web Services, Microsoft
we've done that in an analogue motion.
Azure or Google Cloud. “We have to really
By that I mean we send a seller out with
focus on what we do well. What is our busi-
a PowerPoint deck or we do a traditional
ness, and how can we differentiate and
sales call. In the as-a-service world, cust-
provide value in ways that those other
omers want to do a lot of it themselves.
cloud providers cannot do or SaaS provid-
So, we had to create a whole digital front
ers cannot do; including our traditional
door where customers can come in and
competitors, the Dells or Lenovos of the
learn about HPE GreenLake. They could
world. How do we continuously provide
read testimonials, join communities and
that differentiated value? Those quickly
get a price for the purchase process. They
became our North Star principles. So,
can estimate their own price by filling in
we have this journey we built. We talked
a few details about the size of their envi-
to customers, we established those North
ronment and what they're looking for. We
Star principles that it has to be fast, it has
started to simplify and digitize that aware-
to be easy, and has to provide differen-
ness conversation and purchase process.”
tiated value, and those were absolutely critical.” “When we think about awareness and
HPE then started to harness the customer feedback to understand what, and why, things were happening within the 15
“I think my favorite quote on this whole CX thing is what Walt Disney said. He said, “Do what you do so well that your customers will come back and they’ll bring a friend.’” — ERIK VOGEL G L O B A L V I C E P R E S I D E N T, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, HPE
GreenLake experience. Vogel and his
platform. And that will be a key component
team deployed Qualtrics as a CX plat-
as we're continuing to grab and gather that
form and data aggregation platform. “We
customer data.”
were already good at what I would call
Integral to the development of any
the operational data. So, we would see
successful customer journey is feedback.
how many people would click and how
What do the customers think? What do
much time they would spend on the site.
the customers want? HPE is continu-
We had good visibility into what was
ing its interaction with clients to finesse
happening. What we didn't have visi-
its offerings. “Being customer-centric,
bility into was why it was happening. So,
means we've got to be listening, watch-
we started to deploy Qualtrics, and we're
ing and understanding what our custom-
in the process now of deploying that site-
ers are doing.” Vogel and his team then
wide across the entire HPE GreenLake
provide this knowledge to their frontline
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HPE GREENLAKE
employees; the sales teams and account
there might be something here.’ It gives us
teams. “Because we recognize that when
a much better view of what's happening
we think about product decisions and
in the world of the customer, and again,
where we want to go with a portfolio, we
being customer obsessed means we have
expect to get a lot of detail and data from
to be constantly listening to the customer.
our customers telling us what they want.
We have to think about our sellers, our
But we also expect to get good informa-
account teams and even our partners as
tion internally. We're now allowing our
well as our customers.”
sellers to provide that type of feedback
Digital is key for HPE with everything
at scale where we can now do analytics
available on demand, whether thar’s infor-
on it. We can triangulate, ‘Hey, we heard
mation, quotes or confirmation. HPE is
this account team say this and we had
also focusing intently on personalizing
these three customers say that. Hey look,
the experience with the data its collecting 17
regarding its customers. The final piece of the jigsaw is the move to making everything omnichannel. “What I call seamlessly omnichannel,” Vogel explains. “Again, it used to be they would come to our website to look at speeds and feeds. We'd send out our seller with a PowerPoint deck, very single channel, very easy. But now these services are being bought by different personas, the channels where they consume and receive the information is different. I think my favorite quote on this whole CX thing is what Walt Disney said. He said, "Do what you do so well that your customers will come back and they'll bring a friend.’ So, we're doing what we do well with the on-prem in the data center and we're doing it so well by doing it fast, doing it easy and offering this differentiated value so that our customers are coming back. In fact, we have a 90+% renewal rate, and a very high NPS (net promoter score), so, they're maybe not bringing a friend, but they're telling a friend. They're promoting our service to their friend. And that’s a great feeling.”
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HPE GREENLAKE
Erik Vogel Global Vice President, Customer Experience HPE
Erik is customer obsessed with an innate passion for customers to not just fix their problems, but to delight them. And he is dedicated to unifying the way HPE employees view Customer Experience (CX). As the CX leader for HPE GreenLake, Erik is driving the CX focused transformation to delivering everything as-a-service by making sure HPE lives and breathes a customer-centric approach. Erik is a powerful storyteller who, instead of presenting customers as numbers can bring the customer to life in rich detail. This allows him to make complex topics easy to understand, share insights, and present data in actionable formats to make it relevant and meaningful. And Erik believes in connecting a great customer experience to a clear and concise measurement framework and treating metrics as an asset because they offer key insights into what customers want and how to make them happy.
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