Google Cloud Next 2025 | Mark Purcell, Rentokil Initial Group & Jesse Levin, BetterCloud

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Mark Purcell

Group CIO

Rentokil Initial

Jesse Levin

CEO

BetterCloud

play_circle_outline BetterCloud's SaaS management platform for Google Workspace

play_circle_outline Rentokil Initial's use case and problems solved using BetterCloud

play_circle_outline Maximizing IT Efficiency Through M&A and BetterCloud: Essential Advice for SaaS Newcomers

play_circle_outline AI's impact on application estates and SaaS management needs

play_circle_outline Future solutions from BetterCloud: adaptive cost optimization, predictive compliance, autonomous governance

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Mark Purcell, Rentokil Initial Group & Jesse Levin, BetterCloud

Mark Purcell

Group CIO Rentokil Initial

Jesse Levin

CEO BetterCloud

Join us for an insightful discussion featuring Mark Purcell of Rentokil Initial and Jesse Levin of BetterCloud, recorded live at Google Cloud Next 2025. This session, hosted by Rob Strechay of theCUBE Research, delves into the evolving landscape of Software as a Service (SaaS) management and its significance within modern enterprises.

Mark Purcell, a seasoned leader in global information technology management, shares their experiences at Rentokil Initial, a leader in pest control and hygiene services. Together with Jesse Levin of BetterCloud, an inno... Read more

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What does BetterCloud provide in response to the challenges faced by IT teams operating in cloud environments? add

What problems were being addressed when initially working with BetterCloud and how was BetterCloud discovered? add

What are some recommendations for companies that are just getting started on the SaaS management journey? add

What are some of the challenges organizations are facing in managing SaaS applications with the integration of AI, and how are they addressing those challenges? add

What are some examples of the solutions perspective that BetterCloud is working on and bringing to its customers? add

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Mark Purcell, Rentokil Initial Group & Jesse Levin, BetterCloud

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Rob Strechay

>> Hello and welcome to Google Cloud Next and back here on theCUBE where we're really diving into things all around the Google ecosystem. I'm Rob Strechay, Managing Director with theCUBE Research, and in this segment we're going to deep dive into software as a service and the management of software as service and how the SaaS lifecycle really transpires in real world scenarios, so let's dive in here. I'm excited to bring on Mark Purcell, who's the global CIO of Rentokil Initial, and Jesse Levin, who's the CEO of BetterCloud. Welcome on to the show, guys.

Jesse Levin

>> Glad to be here, thank you.

Mark Purcell

>> Hi there.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I think this is an exciting time, especially in SaaS. Everybody, we see a lot of people as they're modernizing and going through digital transformation, really moving to SaaS and really embracing SaaS. And I think this topic really comes up and is one of those things that people, as they do that, they have to do more with less IT people in their organizations and things of that nature as we see in our research. This topic could not be better framed for right now. Let's jump in with Jesse. Jesse, what does BetterCloud do and why are you really uniquely positioned to help organizations, especially with Google Workspace?

Jesse Levin

>> Thanks, Rob. Well, organizations now have hundreds of applications and thousands or tens of thousands of users. And in response to that, BetterCloud provides a SaaS management software platform to help their IT teams gain visibility and control over the costs and risks associated with operating all of the cloud licenses, users and files in those environments. We actually got our start shortly after Google launched to their Workspace environment by building the automation platform for Google administrators to actually reduce the manual work of operating those instances and today, support over 1,000 IT teams and their Google Help Desks to help them maximize productivity of how they onboard, off-board users, manage their access to applications, discover the shadow IT in their environments and control the risks associated with shared files.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, that seems like a big deal to do for organizations, especially as they really embrace Google Workspaces for their productivity. And if anything, it's getting more complex. But let's shift a little bit. Mark, what does Rentokil Initial do?

Mark Purcell

>> Yeah, Rentokil Initial, we're a global leader in pest control and hygiene and well-being services. We employ around 68,500 thousand colleagues and we operate in 89 countries.

Rob Strechay

>> What were the problems that you were trying to solve when you kind of started working with BetterCloud and really, how did you find BetterCloud?

Mark Purcell

>> Actually, we've been all in with Google. We started with Google Workspace or G Suite, as it was called, back in 2008. The problems we were trying to solve was, "How do we ensure we get the most out of the platform? How do we leverage the collaboration capabilities of the platform, but have a tool in place that allows us to do that securely and safely?" And also, we wanted to empower our regional IT teams as well. So rather than everything being done in the center, being providing those guardrails with a platform that provided visibility of the environment and allowing that local management.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, that seems like a big help, especially you're in 89 countries, so especially with all of those different time zones that you must have, it must be mandatory almost to have that distribution and being able to distribute that responsibility to put it mildly.

Mark Purcell

>> Yes.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah. And Jesse, again, SaaS is not new, but how you manage it and because it's just becomes so integral to so many different organizations, how have you seen SaaS management really evolve in the last several years?

Jesse Levin

>> Well, the last several years, the organizational demands for efficiency and managing the returns on technology investments continue to apply pressure on IT and the application stacks that they manage. That pressure has gotten worse as organizational stakeholders beyond IT have increasingly had a role in SAS management, security, finance, procurement, HR, all look to it and their ability to manage their SaaS applications to support smart spending, to improve the employee experience, all while remaining a secure and compliant cloud environment.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, that makes total sense. And I think kind of just playing off of what Mark was saying, Mark, again, how specifically has Rentokil SaaS management needs really evolved and how does BetterCloud help you with that? We kind of touched on it lightly, the distributed nature, but how have they evolved?

Mark Purcell

>> Back in, it was around 2021 I think, when we were really looking to, we'd reached a point with the scale within Google Workspace and we really wanted to have a partner who would help us and provide a platform to allow us to administer that platform. Through Google, we went out an RFP and one of the companies we'd started talking to was BetterCloud, and that was David Politis at that time. For us, it was really important around the culture, the values and the platform. And so actually, the things that we were trying to do at the time as we launched this was around Google administration. We knew that as we were encouraging collaboration and file sharing, we were concerned around were we sharing files safely, so what we were able to identify is that we had over 7 million files within Google Drive that were publicly shared. And we also wanted the ability within the platform, to be able to allow ad hoc inquiries for our HR teams and others to understand when they're doing particular investigations into file sharing and content and so on. So actually, when we selected BetterCloud, they were the right company, the right partners with the right cultures, the right values for us, and it's a super platform.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I can imagine that because that whole governance layer and being able to dive in when you need to and protect your company and the people within it is definitely part of it. How has this and these use cases really provided better value to the customers of your IT organization as you service your business?

Mark Purcell

>> Well, through the use of BetterCloud, we're just able to do things much quicker now in a secure way with full visibility, so we know everything about our Google Workspace platform. If you think about those, we've actually got 68,500 colleagues, but we've actually got more accounts as well in some shared accounts within the platform. What this allows us to do as an IT team is respond to, particularly around the leavers process as well. So as we off-board, colleagues we're able to shut down access, password resets, were able to take Google off their devices. And also one of the things that we actually do as well is if a colleague who's left us has had calendar invites that go into the future, we're able to remove those as well. It just gives us a full visibility of all of our Google Workspace environment and allows us to do that in a much more timely manner of responding to the needs of the business.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, it totally makes sense. And I think at your scale and just how geographically dispersed you are, that is not a small amount, especially the calendaring thing. I love that, to put it mildly, that into the future, that I've had that happen where I've been at companies that didn't use something like BetterCloud and you you're sitting there going, "Okay, is this meeting happening or not?" And I assume that M&A has played a part in Rentokil's, really, its go-forward mantra of how you've grown over the years, but how does M&A really impact the demands on IT and how does that really lead to your use of BetterCloud to help support integration and help with the time to value from an acquisition?

Mark Purcell

>> Well, I mean, firstly, I love M&A as part of my role and it gives us, me and my team access to an exposure to all aspects of the business, the business processes, the way that we're looking and planning and supporting the business with the integration. And so, one of the things that we do whenever we're integrating, we do around 40 to 50 acquisitions a year, so the speed of which we can integrate, bringing them onto the Google Workspace platform is one of the number one, within the top two or three things that we look to do immediately. So what BetterCloud is enabling us to do is to understand firstly, so we're able to connect it to the acquisition, that business and in their environment we're able to see get some real good diagnostics on that, and we have a playbook for on day one when we acquire the business and BetterCloud, the actual analysis of their environment is one of the first things that we do. And then as we plan for the integration, we have the ability to really know exactly what we're going to be migrating and what's actually going to remain in the host system.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I think again, I heard a little birdie was chirping in my ear and I heard that you'd earned some recognition from doing all of these M&A type of deals and it really got recognized by your board of directors. What is that? What got the attention at a board level by using BetterCloud to help you move this direction and help get the value out of acquisitions?

Mark Purcell

>> One of the largest acquisitions that we've done in the last couple of years is the acquisition of Terminix here in North America, and that's 13,000 colleagues. So as part of that integration planning, which has board visibility, was the transition of the Terminix business from their Office 365 environment to Google Workspace. Using the BetterCloud platform, we were able to get a really good insight into the existing Office 365 environment. Then using another Google partner, we planned for that migration of 13,000 colleagues, so we started with a small group of people. We actually started with the Terminix IT team, we then extended that to smaller pockets of colleagues, around 500, we did over a couple of weekends. And we were then having tested and planned and retested, we were in the position to be able to complete that migration. So over two weekends, we migrated 13,000 or what was remaining of the 13,000 colleagues onto Google Workspace and without any issues whatsoever. It was one of the smoothest migrations that we could have completed and it was all down to the planning, but the use of BetterCloud in our ability to understand what we were actually going to be migrating. And we had excellent feedback from the colleagues. Our North America CEO was providing an update to the board and I was there and we were sharing the progress that had been made in that, because this is such a key enabler. When you're bringing two businesses together, bringing them onto the common SaaS platform like Google Workspace enables us to get that culture and that starting the integration right up front. So it was a huge success for us and that was recognized by our board of just how well that was executed with BetterCloud at the heart of what we were doing.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I would say that's no small feat, to put it mildly when you're doing that, because everybody uses email on a daily basis. In that transition, there's a lot of things that could potentially go wrong, so that's unbelievable to have that with really no hiccups whatsoever, which is fantastic. Mark, given you have this wealth of experience, what are some recommendations that you have for other companies that are just getting started on the SaaS management journey?

Mark Purcell

>> My recommendations would be to firstly identify the problems that you are trying to solve. And I'm sure if you are using Google Workspace or other platform, then you'd have some common problems that you're trying to solve around how do you get the most out of the platform, how do you do this in a secure way, a delegated way, and really looking then to use a BetterCloud as you think about how you're going to manage it going forward? And as I said earlier, there's so many, particularly the user management licensing as well. So we've been able to reduce our license costs by ensuring through the use of BetterCloud that we've only got licenses for the people that need it. Think about how you are organized, think about how you're going to use the tool. But for us, I could not imagine now, a world where we didn't have BetterCloud managing our environment because it just gives us that full transparency. But it isn't just about the technology, it's about your processes, it's about your people, it's about your cultures and how you communicate. But really understanding what you are looking to do and the problems that you have as a company today, and then look at BetterCloud as being able to support you with that.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, that totally makes sense. And I like how you brought it back because at the end of the day, it's the people who are your customers internally that have to be happy with that. Let's kind of shift gears a little bit here because I think if we don't talk about AI, we'll get kicked off the internet. So I think from that perspective, Jesse, what are you seeing as the impact of AI to application estates and SaaS management needs in general?

Jesse Levin

>> Well, we're seeing AI quickly create new pressures on SaaS management as AI gets integrated into almost all applications, and this is expanding the surface area of the risks security and governance requirements of cloud application environments. Organizations are also in the early days of struggling to fund all of these new AI initiatives in what remains for many, a volatile operating and budgeting environment. And many are using SaaS management tools to gain intelligence around what the usage and costs are of their applications, and freeing up some of the dollars associated with unused or over-licensed applications and redirecting that to fund new AI innovation spending. The growth in AI computing power and LLM efficacy is quickly making agentic AI also a reality that will add another layer of transformation to SaaS management and another layer of opportunity for IT to do what Mark was describing earlier, but at a larger scale more quickly and comprehensively.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, we see it, same thing in the data that we have and that again, if anything, I loved your comment there around how do you deal with the budgeting aspect of it and how do you bring it all together? I think that to me is definitely one of the keys, is how do you get the ROI out of AI, to put it mildly. And that governance layer has to be there to be specific because otherwise, you can get AI sprawl, to put it mildly. But what do you see next from a solutions perspective for BetterCloud and what you're going to be bringing to your customers?

Jesse Levin

>> Well, as BetterCloud starts to work AI into its own product, we will be able to start supporting self-optimizing self-SaaS management and enable IT teams to deliver even more value within SaaS lifecycle management. Three examples of work underway right now, one, adaptive cost optimization. This is the idea that the platform will simply recommend the right sizing strategies and identify underused or underutilized licenses with intelligence that helps them find SaaS savings initiatives continuously to do things like fund critical AI spending. Second, predictive compliance and security. Instead of IT needing to use a team to go find anomalies, the agents will simply be able to help autonomously, actually detect those anomalies and recommend remediations before they become risks and only have it actually get involved in the decisions that are outside of policies that have already been defined. And then finally, autonomous SaaS governments to help them monitor and adjust access, compliance and cost policies based on all that real-time usage information that they're getting.

Rob Strechay

>> That's a fantastic use of AI. I got to say I love it because I think all three of those are going to help your customers really from a scale perspective and efficiency, and help their teams really do more. It is been great, I really appreciate this, Mark and Jesse. Thanks for coming on board here at Google Cloud Next. Thanks for showing up today.

Mark Purcell

>> Very welcome, thank you very much.

Jesse Levin

>> Thanks, Rob. Thanks, Mark.

Mark Purcell

>> Thanks, Rob. Thanks, Jesse.

Rob Strechay

>> And thank you for watching this episode of Google Cloud Next on theCUBE. We're here, bringing you all of the information that's going down on theCUBE, the leader in enterprise analysis and news.