Conversations with Dez dez_blanchfield

I caught up with Zee Hussain, Senior Vice President Global Business - Finance, Healthcare and Industry Solutions, at AT&T Business, to learn about an AT&T Business initiative focused on the connected future of air travel, to discover how innovative, networked technologies are revolutionising the passenger experience, and what airports can do to solve traditional passenger pain points with connected solutions.

Key areas of focus for this initiative include:

● Transforming air travel
● Staying on schedule
● Checking in
● Lost baggage
● Streamlining security
● Passenger confidence
● Better boarding

In this conversation Zee and I discuss a range work being doing around “the connected future of air travel” and everything around Transforming Air Travel, from Staying on Schedule, Checking in, Lost Baggage, Streamlining Security, challenges around Passenger Confidence, Better Boarding and more.

● Transforming air travel

We kick off with Zee sharing insights into what in particular gave rise to the opportunity to look into opportunities to Transform Air Travel?

Zee goes on to share key insights around air travel at the front end, i.e. scheduling, checking, and baggage handling, including:

● Staying on schedule
● Checking in
● Lost baggage

We go on to look at the challenges the aviation industry is facing now more than ever, with the ongoing need to address recurring challenges such as:

● Streamlining security
● Passenger confidence
● Better boarding

The last two and a half years has thrown so many big challenges up in the air if you’ll pardon the pun, for aviation operators, esp. with the likes of Streamlining Security, addressing Passenger Confidence and fundamentals such as Better Boarding strategies.

I asked Zee to share his thoughts around what’s new in these areas and what sort of work are you doing with customers on these big topics, and what next.

To wrap us up, I invited Zee to share his views on what Aviation & Air Travel Operators should be discussing currently in their board-rooms, to ensure the are well placed over the next 12 months.

Push play now, and tune-in for the full conversation and amazing insights around the connected future of air travel.

This podcast was made in association with AT&T Business.

AT&T and Economist Impact produced an interactive webpage how airports are using connected technologies:

https://impact.economist.com/projects/modernizing-air-travel

For more information about AT&T Business industry solutions for transport visit:

https://bit.ly/attbusinesstransportsolutions

For more information about AT&T Business visit their website:

https://bit.ly/attbusinesswebsite

Recent blog by Zee Hussain on the topic of Imagining the Future of Air Travel:

bit.ly/zee-hussain-blog-imagining-the-future-of-air-travel

I caught up with Sarita Rao, President of Integrated & Partner Solutions at AT&T Business, to talk about her new role, and the always-changing, ever-evolving technology ecosystem.

Last time I spoke with Sarita back in April 2019 at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, she was in a very different role, so we kicked off with Sarita giving us a brief outline of her current role, one she’s held for over a year now as President, Integrated & Partner Solutions for AT&T Business, and some of the key focus areas the role entails.

We then discuss 5G and the amazing applications it has and will bring us, and in particular how 5G is just part of the bigger picture.

Sarita shares her thoughts around why business leaders need to be looking at the whole ecosystem of Devices, IoT sensors, cloud-based solutions, all the way through to edge computing, and how all of these components are part of the “tech ecosystem” puzzle.

We delve into what the phrase “tech ecosystem” means in Saritas’ world, and what the essential components of that ecosystem actually are.

Sarita also shares where she see parts of this particular ecosystem being overlooked, and what are business leaders missing in her view.

I also ask Sarita how can business leaders should go about getting into the mindset of thinking about this ecosystem, rather than individual technologies, and how do the can get out of what in effect is often akin to having tunnel vision.

We then look at how business leaders can ensure all the moving parts in their ecosystem will work together.

We also talk about some of the business applications that this “tech ecosystem” Sarita speaks of now makes possible, such as Virtual Reality aka VR, and Augmented Reality aka AR, which are often see as being “just a few years away” it seems like, and yet we’re already seeing more uptake now than ever, so I ask Sarita “is this the year this tech finally comes of age?”.

Sarita goes on to share some examples of applications for VR and AR she and her team are seeing currently, such as enhancing customer experience aka CX, through to on-the-job training and many exciting innovations in between.

Further to that, Sarita delves into what technologies do businesses need to take advantage of VR and AR.

And finally, we wrap up with what Sarita sharing her views on what she and her team are seeing in the tech ecosystem, and what trends businesses should be focused on for a more successful 2022.

Tune in now for all of these amazing topics and more.

This podcast was made in partnership with AT&T Business.

For more information visit:

AT&T Business website: bit.ly/attbusiness​

I caught up with Alicia Dietsch, Senior Vice President of Business Marketing for AT&T Business, to talk about her role, the topic of Business of Human marketing, and a look back at the impact of the year that was 2021.

We kick off with Alicia sharing a brief outline of what a “day in the life of Alicia Dietsch” is like in her role as Senior Vice President of Business Marketing for AT&T Business and the key focus areas her role entails.

The key topics we cover in this discussion include:

- Business to Human marketing, what it means, and why it matters

- A short “2021 year in review” & looking at lessons learned

- How 2021 caused “Shifts in customer expectations”

We wrap up this conversation with a view of what do Alicia thinks is coming over the horizon in the next 12 to 18 months, and in particular what decision makers should be considering as they look to the short to medium term future.

Tune in now for all of these amazing topics and more.

This podcast was made in partnership with AT&T Business.

For more information visit:

AT&T Business website: bit.ly/attbusiness​

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I caught up with Bernard Yee, who is the Region President for both Asia Pacific & Canada, at AT&T Global Services, on my podcast, to discuss his role, how Industry 4.0 is gaining very real momentum and why, where 5G is transforming manufacturing across Asia Pacific, how & why 5G is consistently powering intelligent Industry 4.0 infrastructure needs, and how SASE enables secure remote access to cloud-based applications for manufacturers.

We kick off with Bernard sharing what a day in the life is like currently for him and his role, a brief look at the various impacts of the last two years of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic have bene, key insights into his role as Region President, for both the Asia Pacific and Canada markets for AT&T Business, and what some of the key focus areas his role entails.

The key topics we cover in this amazing discussion include:

1 - How Industry 4.0 on 5G will transform manufacturing across Asia Pacific in the next few years

2 - Where 5G is providing the power and consistency that intelligent Industry 4.0 infrastructure needs

3 - SASE and how it is enabling secure remote access to cloud-based applications for manufacturers

We wrap up with Bernard sharing his take on what organisations and their CEOs and key business & technology decision makers need to be considering as they look ahead at the year that will be 2022.

Push PLAY, and "tune in" and enjoy this wonderful fireside chat, there are so many key insights and actionable takeaways, Bernard is indeed a subject matter expert with both broad and deep experience throughout business and technology realms, and his extensive time in boardrooms, with CEOs, gives him one of the most unique lenses through which he views real world challenges his customers and business partners are facing, and with the power of AT&T behind him, he and his team are solving challenges on a global level throughout the Asia Pacific region as well as Canada.

This podcast was made in partnership with AT&T Business.

For more information visit:

AT&T Global Services portal: http://bit.ly/attglobalservices

AT&T Business portal: http://bit.ly/attbusinessportal

As online shopping rates remain high due to the impacts of COVID-19, sustainability is more important to Australian consumers than ever before.

I caught up with Daniel Osborne, Marketing Director APAC at Manhattan Associates, Tom Ferrier, Founder, Greener, and Rob Hango-Zada, Co-Founder & Joint CEO, Shippit to get the inside scoop on a new research report ‘Sustainability in the Australian Retail Supply Chain’ commissioned by Manhattan Associates, Shippit and Greener.

This research was run in partnership with both the National Retail Association (NRA) and National Online Retail Association (NORA).

Manhattan Associates, Shippit and Greener undertook this exciting research study with the broad goal of looking at the key challenges Australian retailers and their customers face, when it comes to sustainability, and to investigate the associated invisible costs on the environment due to increasing efforts by retailers to get orders out the door faster.

Challenges & issues across the industry included:

+ Split shipments result in more trucks and vans on the road
+ ROI on Sustainability, how do businesses achieve this
+ Consolidate Deliveries with smarter technology
+ Carbon Reduction across the entire supply chain
+ Placing dollar values / costs on the likes of Packaging, Labour, Transport and more..

Key findings from this research included:

+ ​​63% said they would pay extra for more environmentally friendly delivery options
+ ​​60% stated they would be willing to receive deliveries at a later date if it delivered in a more environmentally friendly way
+ ​​69% of Australians shopping online now prefer home delivery over click and collect or curb-side pick up.
+ ​​81% said they would prefer to receive their order at a later date if that meant it would arrive as a single consolidated delivery
+ ​​60% indicated they occasionally to most of the time receive their online orders in multiple shipments
+ ​​81% of them said that they think this is unsustainable way of delivering online goods

For the full conversation push PLAY and tune-in to this amazing discussion with three leading thought leaders from the supply chain and retail industry as they share the background and rational for this project, their approach, and amazing insights into what they learned in the process.

This podcast was made in partnership with Manhattan Associates, Shippit and Greener.

For more information download your free copy of the final report and findings here:

=> https://bit.ly/sustainability-in-the-australian-retail-supply-chain

For further information about Manhattan Associates, Shippit and Greener visit them via:

Manhattan Associates => https://bit.ly/manhattan-assocaites-website

Shippit => https://bit.ly/shippit-website

Greener => https://bit.ly/greener-website
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I caught up with Rupesh Chokshi, Vice President of AT&T Cybersecurity at AT&T Business, to get a preview of his two presentations for the upcoming 2021 AT&T Business “Business Summit” titled “Reinventing Reality”.

AT&T Business are hosting their annual Business Summit in a virtual format this year, on October 27th & 28th, 2021 in American Central Time (CT) time zone. Registration is free! There’s a link below to register.

Featured speakers this year include:

+ Anne Chow, Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Business
+ Indra Nooyi, former Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo
+ Shaquille O’Neal, American basketball star & philanthropist
+ Over 60 sessions across the two days.

Rupesh is actually presenting two talks this year, which are titled:

1. The Age of Cybersecurity:

+ Connecting and protecting your business in a digital world
+ scheduled for October 28 at 11am CT

2. Cybersecurity and Edge Networking:

+ Delivering the next level of enterprise protection
+ scheduled for October 28 at 2pm CT

Without giving away too many secrets, which given his role is something he’s naturally good at, keeping secrets that is, what Rupesh was able to share both a taste of what we can look forward to at the event.

Rupesh also shared some very powerful insights into what Rupesh and his team within the AT&T Business “AT&T Cybersecurity” division offer their customers.

There is so much you’ll be able to take away from this fireside conversation in this episode of our podcast Conversations with Dez, both on the two talks Rupesh is presenting, but also broadly across the current trends and challenges organisations of all shapes and size are facing and how AT&T Cybersecurity are helping those organisations address those challenges.

A brief summary of what Rupesh and I discuss includes the following key topics:

1. Changes and trends in cybersecurity

+ Hybrid Work
+ Multi-Cloud Adoption
+ Security and Network Convergence
+ 5G, IoT, and Edge
+ Pervasive security fabric
+ End-to-end protection of users
+ Protection of devices, networks, apps, and data

2. AT&T’s vision for cybersecurity and edge

+ Customer Edge - Software Defined, IoT Driven
+ Network(s) - Intelligent, High Speed
+ Cloud Ecosystem(s) - Multi-cloud, Distributed
+ Embedded Pervasive Security Fabric - Customer Edge, Network
+ End to end protection of users, devices, networks, applications & data
+ Identity / Endpoint, Advanced 5G Security, CDN / DDoS
+ Secure Access Service Edge ( SASE ), Extended Detection & Response
+ Importance of the Culture of Cybersecurity
+ Security is not an IT and technology issue, it’s a business issue
+ Connected economy and business continuity being under threat
+ Digital trust
+ The Culture of Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility

3. New AT&T capabilities in the market

+ Comprehensive view of security is key
+ Successful adoption of SD-WAN
+ Shifting focus to SASE
+ Protecting endpoints with XDR solution

4. Example Use cases from IoT, Enterprise & Data Centres, Infrastructure & Healthcare

+ Securing Industrial IoT
+ Zero Trust access with security support for industrial systems
+ Enabling the future of healthcare
+ Resilient, low-latency network with centralised security management
+ Protecting Your Company
+ End-to-end protection of Devices, Networks and Data, Proactive remediation of Ransomware and DDoS

For the full conversation and so many amazing insights, and key actionable takeaways for any organisation facing the challenge of wrapping up the year that is 2021 and facing the unknowns of what the new year in 2022 will bring, you’ll want to push PLAY now, and tune into the full discussion.

Register for the AT&T Business Summit here => https://bit.ly/attbizsummit2021linkedin

Add both of the talks Rupesh is presenting to your calendars.

This podcast was made in partnership with AT&T Business.

For more information about AT&T Cybersecurity, please visit: https://bit.ly/att-cybersecurity

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