Qlik Connect 2025 | Charles Link, Reworld & Drew Clarke, Qlik

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Charles Link

Chief Data & Analytics Officer

Reworld Waste

Drew Clarke

EVP, Product & Technology

Qlik

play_circle_outline Empowering Sustainability through Reworld's Data Integration and Qlik Analytics Cloud

play_circle_outline Use of Iceberg open data for high-volume data handling and IoT data exploration

play_circle_outline Partnership with Qlik

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Charles Link, Reworld & Drew Clarke, Qlik

Charles Link

Chief Data & Analytics Officer Reworld Waste

Drew Clarke

EVP, Product & Technology Qlik

Charles Link, senior director of data and analytics at Reworld Holding Corp., and Drew Clarke, general manager and executive vice president of the data business unit at QlikTech International AB, join theCUBE’s John Furrier and Bob Laliberte at Qlik Connect to explore how data partnerships drive innovation in sustainability. The conversation centers on Reworld’s strategy to turn waste into energy, and how Qlik technology fuels that transformation.

Link explains how Reworld uses Qlik to integrate massive data volumes across its operations, optimizing ... Read more

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What technology products did Reworld use to bring together disparate sources of data and create a data supply chain? add

What are the benefits of using Iceberg open data and how are companies exploring its potential for integrating with IoT data? add

What are some examples of companies that have shown genuine care and engagement towards their clients, even if they are not the biggest customers? add

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Charles Link, Reworld & Drew Clarke, Qlik

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>> Welcome back everyone to theCUBE's live coverage here in Orlando, Florida for Qlik Connect 2025. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE with Bob Laliberte, CUBE Analyst here for theCUBE Research. We've got a great program story here. We solved a big problem turning into energy. Charles Link is the Chief Data Analyst of the Reworld. Great story, we're going to get to dig into it. Drew Clarke, general manager, EVP of the data business unit at Qlik, CUBE alumni. Drew, great to see you. Thanks for coming back.

Drew Clarke

>> Yeah, really good to be here again. You guys have a great show.

>> Charles, great to have you on. We're talking before about what you're doing. It's a phenomenal story and it's innovative, it's relevant to the planet.

Charles Link

>> Thank you.

>> Just love the mission. Drew, we'll start with you on Qlik. This is the show where the "proof is in the pudding," as they say. Last year it was Answers stole the show a little bit. You had the cloud merging, now you've got the open data formats as a service, Qlik analytics cloud, Answers plugging in-

Drew Clarke

>> It's all coming together....

>> metrics coming together.

Drew Clarke

>> Absolutely.

>> So you got to be pretty pumped. Give us the update.

Drew Clarke

>> Yeah, so a year ago we talked about the vision of Qlik Talend Cloud, really bringing together the best of the data integration, data quality on the platform to be able to deliver analytical value. Well, we did that. We have over 100 customers using that platform already, Reworld is one of them. Today we announced three new areas. One was around data products with Trust, with the confidence in that. Number two was around open data and really around the use of Iceberg as a way to handle high volumes, but to make it reusable in the platform. Number three, agentic. How do you set up for an AI driven organization? So we had a lot to cover today.

>> Yeah. And there's a lot more coming too as agents have to have the authority, the trust, reliability factored in also the cloud scales. Great. Charles, you're here not only because it's a great story about sustainability, but a technical angle too. You've got a lot of data in there. Reworld took a disposal problem, turned it into a energy saver, planet saver solution. Explain what you're working on. Just set the table. What are you guys doing at a high level so people can understand the context?

Charles Link

>> All right, well, so the context is after you're done with reduce, reuse, recycle, there's always still going to be garbage. We actually will recover valuable assets out of that, whether it be energy, whether it be steam, whether it be metals, even the ash is used for road bedding and the aggregate and all that, or for cement additives. But we also do alternative energy, fuels, wastewater recovery, basically anything to keep things out of the landfill, to stop the world from being more polluted. We basically answer that problem.

>> And converted it to energy and to use, right?

Charles Link

>> Yeah.

>> So energy generation. So all the goodness.

Charles Link

>> Yeah.

>> So it's actually what people have been hoping to do.

Charles Link

>> And we make money in the process. It's a good business.

>> So you're selling it. Okay, talk about the technology angle, data. So with Qlik, you're not just a good story of sustainability but there's a business story here.

Charles Link

>> Oh, yeah. I mean we actually started with Qlik, Qlik and the Talend product back in 2019. When I got there, it was greenfield, they didn't have a data strategy, they didn't have anything. So we partnered with the Talend solution at the time now Qlik and said, "This is where I want to go. We need to bring together many disparate sources of data." We were focused predominantly at first on the corporate data, but operational data is there too, is that we need an effective solution to do this in a way that allows it to be trusted and well managed. We selected that suite of products because it was an entire suite. It allowed us to build our data supply chain from beginning to end, and it worked really well and it scaled really well.

>> And intentional because it was greenfield?

Charles Link

>> Yeah.

>> Explain the difference because you had a clean sheet of paper basically.

Charles Link

>> We had a clean sheet of paper. Everybody was operating off of spreadsheets or they had their database. They had their database. It was a classic problem.

>> What was the North Star for you guys when you said, okay, we're going to take a shot at this, end to end. Share some philosophy.

Charles Link

>> The North Star was to ultimately create a common hub of information. Not to replicate everything, but to have one place that could form the alloy of intelligence. That's where data from these disparate systems and the trick to doing that was that we had to create a model, a data model, not a database, but a data model that represented what Reworld defined things. What is a company, what is a person, what is a plant, what is a this? And we actually built that out. We knew we weren't done the minute we created the first one, we purpose built it as we went with each project. We didn't have this massive funding coming in. We had project budgets and we said instead of trying to say, hey, give me X million dollars and someday you're going to get this, I said, "Okay, I'm going to take 50,000 here, 50,000 there, and I'm going to do these projects, but we're going to do them this way with these tools," and everything was built towards moving down that road. I like to describe it as laying down the cobblestones on the road you're on. And at the end of each year people would say, "So how do you know?" I said, "Turn around and look behind you," because you're walking down the road as you go. And it worked out really well.

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. So along those lines, give us some idea of the impact putting that strategy in place had on your business. The processes that you were going through prior versus after, and now even potentially what you're hoping to achieve as you continue to progress.

Charles Link

>> So we're in growth mode and one of the things that was never possible before is to get together what are the KPIs that actually measure how are we doing? That sounds a little fundamental, but you got to start somewhere. We really got together and pulled enough data from different sources to say, "These are the KPIs," and we can actually measure them by bringing together all these data stores. It's because our Talend data cloud solutions would allow us to reach into just about anything. I mean, I've joked with people repeatedly, "If you've got data in that coffee cup, I'm going to hook up to it and get it out."

>> You're a data scrounger, so you're getting all that data. So talk about how you guys look at the business. So what's the business model? I'm trying to understand how you guys expand. You said you're in growth mode. What does that mean?

Charles Link

>> Well, we're acquiring companies to do other... because we're always taking the bounds of waste out a little bit further. Before it was just municipal trash and maybe some industrial, and then we had the materials processing, but now we're getting into alternative energy fuels for cement kilns or we help with cleanup of oil waste in the tankers and things like that. It's all got to be cleaned up and put back to use somehow. We handle all that, but we've acquired companies that do that. And in doing so, each one of these companies is coming with their own sets of systems. And that makes things challenging because every one of these systems, they can't fold the company and to start generating revenue if they hold up and say, look, we'll wait until we're done converting their ERPs into our ERPs, and we don't even know if we're going to stay on our ERP. So what we did is with this common model and this framework we built with Talend is that we created the snap-ons and we bolt things in or tear them out as we need and it's really made a big difference. We've been able to grow the company's revenue significantly. We've been able to... Now we're predominantly focused this year on commercial data. We've been able to do things like understand where all of our overlaps are between all these business units we've acquired and master that customer and understand where our cross-sell opportunities, what our opportunities to-

>> Explain that snap-in because a lot of companies that do acquisitions actually think it looks good on paper, but a lot of the integration stuff fails or falters or no one, they look the other way and then it doesn't integrate.

Charles Link

>> Yeah.

>> What was your strategy specifically to make it all work without any rewrites or...

Charles Link

>> Yeah, all the jobs we write, whether they be APIs or standard integration jobs, they're written to be reusable and configurable. So we will have maps for each one of these systems. And when we don't know what that system is, we'll work on the map. But that map's job is to talk to the standard code line. So we reuse those jobs over and over again. I can't stress enough the impact of that because we can move very, very quickly. I'll give you an example that was very good, but a little bit outdated. We all remember this little thing called COVID, and we had a project where we knew I needed to track the contractors who were doing the work on our facilities because we do these outages and all of that. And the original way to do their time, this was the first project I got when we got there. We used professional services to actually get us up and running because we hadn't learned it yet. The contractors were putting their hands on scanners to register in. Well, little thing, you can't touch anything anymore. They were all a flurry saying, "Oh my God, the project's going to go off base. We're going to lose tens of millions of dollars, nothing's going to happen." I said, "Wait, hold on. That's not what we built here. You just have to put in different scanners. All I need to do is do a new map. Everything else works." Like, "Oh." So it's just a matter of figuring out how do I talk to this new vendor?

>> So front end, you change the front end because you had the map, it just plugs in, then the data goes in.

Charles Link

>> And it just snapped in. And that's the strategy we followed over and over again, that allows us to be very fast. We do this... our operating budget's pretty tiny. If you consider software licensing everything for our BI and everything, our operating budget's under 3 million a year, and that's staff, employees, bonus, that's everything all in. We're very small and yet we're pulling off this and it's the tool set that helps it.

Drew Clarke

>> So Charles, I come from a strategy emanated background, so I'm fascinated on just the integration side of the house. What would you say when you're looking at a data system as a new acquisition comes in where you go, that one's going to be easy or hard? For me, it was always the general ledger. The general ledger is the source of truth for that acquired company. Don't really want to mess with it, but you got to get that integrated on the financials. What is it for you?

Charles Link

>> So part of our trick was in that data model, we have things that basically provide universal maps and we would then map. And the hard part was mapping that chart of accounts, once you understood what that map was. The other trick is to maintain a way to get back to it, because oftentimes the financial systems would take two and mash them into one or more, and you can't get to the details where you can actually do something to manage the outcomes. That wasn't acceptable. So what we did was we kept track of the DNA that said, "Yes, you're going to go here in combined form, but I'm going to be able to basically still take the red out of the Kool-Aid. When you want to drill in, I'll tell you why."

Drew Clarke

>> They take it back.

Charles Link

>> Yeah.

>> And we say maps. Describe what a map is again, because is it like an accounting financial map or architecture map or both?

Charles Link

>> It's both. But in this case it was basically just an accounting map, but it's providing a level of control and DNA that will let me get from rolled up numbers back to detailed numbers. Because the way they traditionally did it is they would mash up in an export the accounts for load into our primary financial system. And by the time they did that mashup, it was taken out of the system. There was no walk back.

Bob Laliberte

>> So you couldn't say, why was your cost higher because you didn't know if it was one of 3, 4, 5 different charts of accounts.

Charles Link

>> Yep.

Drew Clarke

>> Yeah.

Charles Link

>> So today-

Drew Clarke

>> Oh, I was going to ask another question. Today I announced our support for Iceberg open data, high volume going in, you were sharing earlier about IOT data. So as trucks come on to scale, and that's where you get your profitability and how you're going to run the SSR.

Charles Link

>> Oh yeah, the specified steam rate. That's just the production.

>> Yeah, right. As you get into tons of data, what do you think about IOT data and are you exploring Iceberg at all?

Drew Clarke

>> Yes, actually we are looking at Iceberg, and I love the new announcements because until those announcements come out, there's many things we are doing to build for ourselves. We don't want to build for ourselves. We're a small crew, but we will. But the upside is we... small builds we've done for ourselves, prove the value so that when there's a product out there, I don't have to fight to go get the licensing for that and say, "Okay, we've proved it works. Now you want to scale. Here's your ROA." There's no more arguments. It's done. So the Iceberg is great because that's going to help with our 26 roadmap where we're bringing all the SCADA data into a hub because we want to create a digital twin of all of our facilities. Each one of them is built differently, and I need all that data to understand how they would respond when I decide that I want to trigger an event and I want to say, "Look, I want to grow my EBITDA, so what do I need?" Because one facility's operation is going to be totally different than the other. I need all that data in a place where I can get to it and at scale, but also to test when I've got a model I can't test on a live facility, I need a digital twin feeding off that data to say, this is how it would really behave in the real world with stuff that's streaming.

>> And Charles, quick question for you. I mean, now that you've got the foundation in place or you're getting the foundation in place for all the data, what are your thoughts on moving forward with AI, agentic AI? Do you look at that as a welcome or is it-

Charles Link

>> Oh, absolutely. We've actually been working, I've had work going on in my shop for AI for three years now, and we actually have our own AI entity. We stood up. It's the first one we're bringing up, and this is why I was extra glad you had a whole framework around agentic AI because we were building our own to be a sales assistant. It's basically somebody who's going to go out and take a lead, do all the research that a person would have to do before they make the call and do it better. One of our chief commercial officers came to me and said, "Look, my sales guys are spending at least an hour before they'll even make a phone call on a lead. So they're getting through four or five a day and we need to grow." And I said, "Okay." He said, "What can you do with AI?" I said, "We could have AI be their assistant and take that leads information and go out and get all the demographics about it, find out if we're doing any business with them or their corporate family. Gather up what similar companies are doing and prepare an entire dossier of things to talk about and say, 'Look, we've researched what your sustainability story is. We've researched what you're trying to do and here's how to sell the product.'" And that's where agentic AI, so we prove the value with what we're building, but to have something we don't have the scale to scale. So we need products that do that.

>> So you're a consumer of AI.

Charles Link

>> We're a consumer and a creator.

Bob Laliberte

>> Yeah. So you create the proof of concept, got the data, small team. True, this is a use case that's consistent in the AI world. He's essentially saying they're punching way above their weight class because they've got leverage in their operations. That the way they designed their data, they got massive operating leverage. So a small team could do a lot.

Drew Clarke

>> Well, and that's exactly what's exciting about you, Charles and Reworld, is what you've been able to accomplish. You're a small team, but highly effective.

Charles Link

>> Well, the tools from the partnership is really where it's at. I mean, if we didn't have the right tools, I mean we just can't do it. And the partnership because it's more than the software, because I always say it's the Ford, Ram, Chevy discussion. Everybody's got some feature function they're always coming out with, but it's that actual partnership and the engagement from the people at Qlik that made the difference, I would say. That's why we're not going to anybody else for these types of socials.

>> Give an example of why that works and how important it was, the partnership.

Charles Link

>> Well, if you don't mind an older story, I'll tell you the one that really sold me on-

>> Yeah, that's here....

Charles Link

>> the partnership. So I was... I'm a repeat customer. I was the CDO for AIG Retirement Services, and you'll know AIG from the collapse and all of that. So we had to do CCAR reporting and a lot of the stress models, the stress testing, that data was on our mainframes. And we were having one heck of a time because of the recursive data structures doing this. Talend at the time said, "Look, it's possible it works. We're telling you." And we said, "We cannot seem to make it work." Talend at the time, now Qlik, came to us and said, "Look, we're going to bring... Instead of making this a customer support issue, we're going to bring professional services to bear. If it turns out that there was a flaw in the software, you don't pay anything. If it turns out that it was you guys, you know you'll pay the bill." I was like, "Okay, great," because we have a half a billion dollars on the table. If we don't pass this test, they shut us down for half a billion dollars. That's a big problem. It turned out it was ... there's one small patch, but the rest was us. And it was like it didn't matter. At the time they're like, "You know what? It's too small. We're not going to worry about charging you." I said, "Nope. Give me the bill. You just saved me half a billion dollars in business." It was a $23,000 bill. I'll write you a personal check on that one. But it's always been that way. Anytime we needed something, we weren't the biggest customer always. Especially at Reworld, we're not the biggest, but they engage and they care and they see what we're doing, and it's a partnership to drive that message forward.

>> That's awesome. I love that story about... because you could quantify that example. You knew what the consequences were. You could quantify it, so it was important.

Charles Link

>> Yeah, it's been that way all along. I mean, a number of the Qlik people have been to our facilities. They actually go see our sites, and then they were like, "Now we truly understand the scale of what you all are doing."

Drew Clarke

>> Yeah. Well, how do I get an invitation to one of your sites?

Charles Link

>> Consider yourself invited. When are you in New Jersey?

Drew Clarke

>> I know I'm not too far away. I'm up in Boston.

Charles Link

>> Come on down to New Jersey. I will get you into our sites.

Drew Clarke

>> All right.

Charles Link

>> It's a fantastic tour.

>> Great testimonial. This is again, the vibe of the show. The meat is on the bone, as they say, with the proof points.

Drew Clarke

>> That's right.

>> Strategy. Last year, ANSYS was on the scene. I was saying it stole the show last year because it was just getting out there, but people wanted it. You could feel the energy. Now you're delivering on the team. Great stuff. And again, more success like this.

Bob Laliberte

>> Congratulations.

Drew Clarke

>> Thank you. And we're really excited. And Charles, it's been a great partnership and I'm going to get down and I want to see one of these, please.

Charles Link

>> You've got to see it. It's phenomenal.

Bob Laliberte

>> Absolutely.

>> And I love the co-hosting. Come on theCUBE. We definitely got some openings for you. Great job. Good to see you. Cube alumni knows the drill. I'm John Furrier here at theCUBE with Bob Laliberte. We'll be right back after this short break.