NetApp INSIGHT 2024 | Jenni Flinders, NetApp & Travis Rubida, CDW & Clint Oyler, Monument Health

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Jenni Flinders

SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization

NetApp

Travis Rubida

Principal Consultant

CDW

Clint Oyler

Sr. Systems Engineer

Monument Health

play_circle_outline NetApp's partner-centric approach for customer outcomes

play_circle_outline Monument Health's success with NetApp in deploying telehealth

play_circle_outline Emphasis on building relationships and partnerships at NetApp Insight

play_circle_outline Focus on building competencies, capabilities, and services offerings

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Jenni Flinders, NetApp & Travis Rubida, CDW & Clint Oyler, Monument Health

Jenni Flinders

SVP, Worldwide Partner Organization NetApp

Travis Rubida

Principal Consultant CDW

Clint Oyler

Sr. Systems Engineer Monument Health

NetApp is a partner-centric, customer-centric organization with strong partnerships like CDW. Clint Oyler from Monument Health in South Dakota shares how NetApp helped deploy telehealth, impacting over 4,500 patients in a short period. Travis from CDW highlights the collaboration with NetApp to modernize Monument's Epic environment, resulting in efficiency and automation. The focus on services and joint solutions helps deliver outcomes for customers across different organizations. The trust, transparency, and deep engagement in partnerships lead to long-lasti... Read more

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What philosophy and approach does NetApp have towards its ecosystem and partners? add

What assistance did NetApp provide in the deployment of telehealth and telemedicine in rural areas of South Dakota? add

What are the benefits of having strong partnerships in the technology industry? add

What is the focus of services within the NetApp portfolio and how can partners benefit from the Partner Accelerated Services program? add

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Jenni Flinders, NetApp & Travis Rubida, CDW & Clint Oyler, Monument Health

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Rob Strechay

>> Hello and welcome back to NetApp Insight 2024. Again, plowing through day two. We got so much content to get to. This is probably one of my favorite segments that I get to do with NetApp because NetApp really is a customer and partner focused company. We've been seeing that throughout all of the keynotes, but today again, I'm joined by Jenni Flinders, who's the senior vice president, worldwide partner organization for NetApp. Welcome back on.

Rob Strechay

>> Thank you.

Rob Strechay

>> We've got Travis Rubida, who is the principal consultant with CDW.

Rob Strechay

>> Thank you.

Rob Strechay

>> Great partner. Worked with you when I was here as well. And Clint Oyler, who's the senior system engineer of Monument Health out of South Dakota. Great to have you on. I love when we have partners and customers here to talk through these things because I think it is about ecosystem. And Jenni, can you kind of help us understand the philosophy and approach that NetApp has to ecosystem and to the partners that you bring on board?

Jenni Flinders

>> You kind of said it for me already. NetApp is a partner centric, customer-centric organization, and we have such amazing partnerships with strategic partners like CDW and many more looking at how we build out the competencies and the capabilities around our solutions to deliver customer outcomes. So the philosophy is very partner centric. It's centered around customer outcomes. It's so intertwined.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, no, I think to me that was always the case. And since your leadership here, I think definitely has had that focus on it. And I think Clint, from that perspective, how does it translate as a customer to what you have to get done on a daily basis? And give us an example of how it has helped you have meaningful outcomes.

Clint Oyler

>> Well, NetApp helped us at a time when we were needing to deploy telehealth and telemedicine. South Dakota is very rural, and there's a lot of places where people don't have quick access to doctors or medical personnel. So there were a lot of regulations with that. NetApp helped us through that, and within starting at zero, we had over 4,500 patients in like a two to three week period.

Rob Strechay

>> Wow, that's impressive. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I think Travis, from a partner perspective, how has the interaction been? Again, it's a long-standing relationship with CDW. How does this interaction with NetApp help you provide outcomes for your clients and the joint customers?

Travis Rubida

>> Yeah, for sure. So one of the key things that we have from a partner perspective with NetApp is really the ability to call upon each other, get access to resources, and then deliver some of basically the information that we can deliver to customers in a meaningful way. So one of the areas that we helped with Monument Health was really kind of around their Epic environment. And when we look at what we did to that, to modernize that and bring basically some of the automation behind that, it would not be possible without NetApp. So we were able to bounce ideas off of internal NetApp people, relay those back to Clint. And the other big piece is we have the expertise across CDW, across NetApp, and across Monument to be able to basically put all of that together and really deliver a joint solution that you've guys been very happy with, I believe.

Clint Oyler

>> Yes.

Jenni Flinders

>> I was just going to say, if I can add onto what Travis was saying, it's really a combined effort. It's not just the partners, not just Monument, it's not just NetApp. It's really how we bring this whole ecosystem together and we all leverage off the skills and everything that we need to make sure that we're delivering outcomes, Clint just like you experienced.

Rob Strechay

>> And Clint, I think just bridging off that, I think that was a great direction to go in, is those outcomes that NetApp and CDW have helped you with, not only about getting up and running fast, but there has to be things around efficiency and data management and really the nuts and bolts of making your job easier as you go along. So kind of help us understand where that partnership has helped you when the rubber meets the road and you got to get stuff done there.

Clint Oyler

>> Well, we've been partner... well, not partners, but customers of CDW for a while.

Travis Rubida

>> Feel like partners is the right word for it.

Clint Oyler

>> Well, yeah, and we've gotten to know the engineers, the architects, and the people. So I think a lot of it is just having relationships with actual people and not thinking of it as a big business that we're trying to... so we have these relationships with people and the example that Travis brought up with Epic, just that, the amount of time that saves us having automation in place to better and more consistently take care of certain aspects of our Epic environment to protect that data and to be able to have a fast robust environment for our end users.

Jenni Flinders

>> And one thing I'd add there is if we look at what NetApp brings to the table and what CDW can bring to the table there, one of the biggest things that we could take advantage of is the ability to instantly clone things, leveraging Ansible automation and being able to provide secondary sets of resources in that Epic environment. And what that really means from a day-to-day admin perspective is less overhead, way less space. And really just driving overall efficiency across the organization.

Jenni Flinders

>> Yeah. And I mean, what we are hearing here is just true testament to the strengths of our partnerships. I hear trust, I hear transparency, I hear optimizing around that customer outcome and that solution for us, it's so important that we listen to our partners and our customers because as technology evolves, I mean, think about where AI is taking us right now. It's how we jointly partner and look at how we take that and generate the best outcomes for our customers with our partners. So that transparency and that trust really leads to that longevity of relationships where we can truly trust one another in solving business problems at the end of the day. So great job.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah. And I was going to say, because you just hit on a really good topic there, because again, when you start to look at the fact that Travis, you brought up again, Ansible and automation and cloud operating models and things of that, everybody wants to get to a cloud operating model on-prem or in the cloud or in Colo or wherever. It's not a destination, it's an operating model from our perspective. How have you really focused on the partnerships and given them the space to build out these services around the NetApp kit and what you bring to bear there?

Jenni Flinders

>> Services have been a big focus for us, especially recently with the expansion of our portfolio, our hybrid story, intelligent data infrastructure, what we are doing around AI. So we actually spend quite a bit of time here at Insight talking about the services opportunity for our partners and what the NetApp economy is around that. So we looked at for partners, every $1 of NetApp sold, you could probably earn 4.55 in return on advisory services, migration services, deployment services, which is really important because we now leaning into, we have a program called PASE, our Partner Accelerated Services program, really helping partners take a lot of IP from us, embed it into theirs, make sure that we are building practice areas to help deliver these customer outcomes because without the expertise, that is not possible. So it's really important that we are working together to develop those competencies, capabilities, services, practices, and that's how we engage in that services environment with our partners.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah. It would seem that the outcomes driven from the customer back. And Clint, when you look at this and you've gone to Travis and NetApp, what has been the experience that you've seen when you've gone to them with a challenge that you're having and how has that helped you build trust with them?

Clint Oyler

>> I would say the experience is that they're always going back to our CDW relationship, just always looking for the right answer for us. And we are a mid-size... maybe small to mid-size healthcare organization. So a solution for us isn't going to be the same solution for Mayo or Cleveland Clinic or a much larger organization. So they're willing to meet where we are and then work with NetApp to find that best solution.

Travis Rubida

>> And... Oh, sorry, go ahead.

Jenni Flinders

>> I was just going to say, can I just tell you that CDW have won numerous awards with us just in the way you guys are innovating, really delivering customer outcomes. So I want you to do that plug and say they really a fantastic partner. They lean in deep, they listen to their customers and just phenomenal in terms of what you're driving out there.

Travis Rubida

>> Well, we couldn't really do it without you. You talked about some of the services capabilities that we have. We rely heavily on NetApp to invest within CDW on our services practice. We've continued to grow it out. And I think that's really where the strength of our partnership comes in is by having those joint services offerings and being able to deliver outcome-based solutions for our customers jointly with NetApp and get the training, the actual hands-on equipment. That's really where that partnership shines.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, 100%.

Rob Strechay

>> And like you said, again, I think this is... You brought up the size of the organization for Monument. I look at it and go, it has to be the right size solution for you as well because what you said, for Mayo doesn't necessarily fit for what you're doing. How are you seeing that brought to bear by working with CDW and NetApp to bring you the right solution at the right size to achieve your goals? You have goals still for budgets and things of that nature and ROI that you need to see. How has that been?

Clint Oyler

>> Well, I'm the type of person who is always looking at technology. I know what the biggest, fastest and whatever is. Like when we first implemented Epic and Epic has a certain requirement, it would be easy for someone to say, "Well, actually, it'd probably be better if we ramped here and here up." But we had the perfect solution and we're still running that solution seven years later, and it's still performing wonderfully.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah. I think a lot of people look at it and they're like, everything is going cloud. We were actually seeing that transition back, that people are coming back on-premise with a lot of it, and a lot of that has to do with AI and other things. But I think part of it is also the trust that is elevated between the partners and like you said, being able to actually physically see somebody. It's not a bot talking to me and things of that nature. Jenni, how do you see that trust building and what you bring and your organization brings to CDW and to Monument to really build out that trust triangle in that relationship?

Jenni Flinders

>> Yeah. And I referenced that earlier, transparency and the partnership, really making sure that we listen to our partners as well as our customers, but to build the partnerships that we have with the likes of CDW, it takes a lot of deep integration across the board in terms of what is it that you need? How do we help you build the capabilities? You mentioned hands-on labs, making sure that they have the equipment ready, that you have the IP and the practices. So you can only build that level of strength and a partnership like we have with CDW, with deep engagement, deep trust, and transparency in the way we engage. So it's a very big focus for us.

Rob Strechay

>> So I'll ask the question around that. How do you really measure success with this? Do you have KPIs or how do you know that it's really working?

Jenni Flinders

>> Oh, we absolutely have KPIs. I look at capacity, capability, and commitment. I look at how many of our partners do we have and how are we maximizing our customers to help them realize their potential through really, I would say, innovating with technology. You mentioned you're always on the latest and greatest. Hey, we have to keep innovating, and that's what we do with our partners. So we measure that. We look at customer outcome, success stories and adoption of technology. We look at who's breaking ground, especially today in AI and how we are helping our customers really structure their data, secure their data. You heard everything this morning. We've got the best out there when it comes to intelligent data infrastructure. So we'll continue to work on that measure that we measure a number of KPIs that our partners actually know what we measure. So it goes to the transparency of how we keep each other on track. Yeah.

Rob Strechay

>> Absolutely. And I think, again, that transparency is key I think. In all the channel and distribution and all of that, programs that come together, you have to have that transparency to understand so that you can actually have good customer outcomes. Last word from the CDW perspective, what are you looking forward to this week and all... because you probably have more than just one customer here and things of that nature, what are you looking forward to this week and what you're seeing?

Travis Rubida

>> Yeah, so I think there are a few things that were announced today, especially around the new ASA line in continuing to expand that out to our customer base, but also as we progress down the AI route, and you were saying customers bringing data back on-prem, being able to, one, learn the story, but then two, being able to actually implement that story of migrating data or basically having the data meet you where you are in that AI journey, and then being able to scale as needed. So I think that's one area. And then the other area, quite honestly is working with customers while we're out here, and also fellow NetApp employees and building out that relationship because I think that's the other big thing about Insight is it is a very, very good place to continue to develop relationships and partnerships.

Rob Strechay

>> I don't know that anybody could have said it any better. That was fantastic. I want to thank you all for coming on board. Again, this to me is one of the major engines that makes this place home is customers working backwards from that and understanding that through the partners with NetApp. So I'm glad you could come on board because it warms my heart. It really does. So thank you.

Travis Rubida

>> Thank you.

Jenni Flinders

>> Thank you for having us.

Clint Oyler

>> I appreciate it.

Rob Strechay

>> And thank you for watching this episode from NetApp Insight 2024. We'll be right back with way more to unpack from this week. Stay tuned.