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Welcome to the Opkalla IT Matters Podcast, where we discuss the important matters within IT as well as the importance of IT across different industries and responsibilities.
About Opkalla:
Opkalla helps their clients navigate the confusion in the technology marketplace and choose the technology solutions that are right for their business. They work alongside IT teams to design, procure, implement and support the most complex IT solutions without an agenda or technology bias. Opkalla was founded around the belief that IT professionals deserve better, and is guided by their core values: trust, transparency and speed. For more information, visit https://opkalla.com/ or follow them on LinkedIn.
Aaron Bock: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast hosted by
Opkalla. We're an IT advisory
firm that makes technology easy
for your business. Our vendor
neutral technology advisors work
directly with your team to
assess technology needs and
procure the best IT solutions
for your organization. On this
podcast, expect high level
expertise from our hosts, plus
experience driven perspective
from the leading experts on
topics like AI, cybersecurity
industry focused IT solutions,
strategy and more. Now let's get
into today's discussion on what
matters in it.
Keith Hawkey: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast hosted by
Opkalla. At Opkalla, we help IT
teams understand the busy
marketplace of technology
strategy and services with a
data driven approach. On this
podcast, we invite technology
leaders to discuss challenges
facing the modern IT department.
And my name is Keith Hawkey,
Technology Advisor with Opkalla,
and I'm joined by my colleague
and esteemed technology advisor,
Michael Coloma, during this
episode, we sit down with John
Sotello, the CIO of Cloyes Gear
and Products whose career defies
convention, starting in sales
and rising into IT leadership.
We'll explore the pivotal
moments and decisions and
mindset shifts to help bridge
the gap between business
outcomes and technology
execution. And we'll also unpack
the future of IT infrastructure
and operations, including how AI
and data are poised to transform
the automotive industry. He
shares his bold vision for
innovation, along with some
personal projects, like a VIN
based initiative that could
reshape how we understand
vehicle data. John Sotello,
welcome to the IT Matters
podcast.
John Sotello: Thank you, Keith,
thank you. Michael, appreciate
Keith Hawkey: But before we
begin, I'd like to play a little
game. We're going to play a game
of two truths and a lie. It
focused. And Michael, you can
play too. So I'll say these
it.
three things that have happened
in it recently, and you guys can
Michael Coloma: Love to have
you.
try to guess where which one is
the lie? Are we ready? Ready?
Let's go. All right. So at CES 2025
a Japanese company unveiled a
robotic cat named nicojita Fufu
designed to cool down hot
beverages by blowing air in
human like intervals. So that is
option number one. Number two.
Researchers developed an AI
interface that assists with
individuals with speech
disabilities in delivering
timely jokes during
conversations, enhancing their
social interactions. Number
three, a startup introduced a
smart toaster that analyzes
facial expressions each morning
to determine your mood and
adjust the toast crispiness
level accordingly.
John Sotello: Those are unique.
Yeah. Thank you. Clearly, I
should have gone to CES this
year,
Michael Coloma: John, give me
your thoughts first and then,
I'm a little hard on the on the
cat thing. I'm gonna go false on
the cat thing. But again, could
be totally wrong, because the
way we're taking technology and
AI is defying some things that
you and I didn't think were
happened. I'm gonna go truth on
the AI speech disability,
because I think that would be a
really good tool for people that
kind of have struggles in that
arena, and also, not just speech
impediments, but also social
anxiety, with talking with folks
and breaking the ice. And I can
totally see a smart toaster in
terms of, how do I predict your
mood? Do I give you another cup
of coffee? Do you do the cold
brew today because it looks like
you need one? So I'm going to go
and then I'll make my give us
your yes first, and then I'll
one false, two, true, three,
true. Cat for 500 Yeah, for 500
Keith Hawkey: There we go. I got
you down for 500 John, what
about you? Michael?
Michael Coloma: I'm gonna go the
other way here. I'm gonna say
that the cat, beverage cooling
item is true. I'm gonna say that
the tool to help people with
speech impediments and the
ability to help them communicate
is true as well, but I'm going
to say that the majority of
people may shift their breakfast
tendency. So I think the demand
for a toaster might be a little
less. So I think over catering
to to more of the masses, as
cool as a cat beverage cooler
would be. I think there's less
people in demand for a toaster.
So that is my guess. I think
first two are true, and the
third one is the lie, all right.
Keith Hawkey: And Michael, you
were right. Oh, man,
Michael Coloma: no insider
knowledge, by the way. I want to
make my guess.
make very clear, that's right,
that's right.
Keith Hawkey: the nikujita Fufu
robotic cat was indeed showcased
at CES 2025
Keith Hawkey: Ability to engage
in humorous conversations.
However, there's no mood
detecting toaster. No such
device has been introduced that
I know of, at least it's coming,
and I'd like to figure out how I
could be a part of that data
transition. It's coming, how you
can monetize with some levity
here. Let's get started. John,
can you tell us a little bit
about your role as CIO of
Cloyes, and what do you guys do
at Cloyes? What's the high level
here?
John Sotello: Sure. So CIO,
fancy title for making sure that
technology complements the
business and keeps us driving.
So that includes the not so fun
stuff, like making sure our
distributions stay up from an
internet perspective, making
sure that Microsoft 365 works
and everyone's favorite fun
tool, which is ERP up and
running. But also we get to
dabble in some of the things
that help drive business right
so connecting transactions from
our customers into our internal
systems, managing some of the
data lakes and some of the
dashboards that we really put
some effort into over the last
year, and providing insights to
our internal teams to help drive
business decisions. But more
importantly, I think we've kind
of become a little bit of the
glue that binds when things come
in. From a technology
perspective. For example, our
operations team is looking at a
transportation management
system. We're kind of that gap
between, hey, operationally,
here's how it works technically,
here's how we integrate it. And
similar story to things like,
hey, the scan guns aren't
working. What can we do to go
look at them? And you know, some
of those things are easy fixes,
and some of them turn out to be
that break fix that you should
have found out about two years
ago, if you will, also on the
forefront of some of our
acquisitions and integrations
that we've done over the last
couple of years.
Unknown: of
Keith Hawkey: Awesome. Yeah.
Thank you for that. Michael, I
think this is the first time
that you've joined the IT
Matters podcast. Am I right?
Michael Coloma: That is correct.
Keith Hawkey: Can you tell us a
little bit about your role at
Opkalla? What do you do?
Michael Coloma: Yeah. So very
similar to your role, I work
with our customers to obviously
help their team procure
solutions that are going to
optimize, make their
organizations way more
efficient, help keep them on the
forefront of an ever changing
world when it comes to it, and
helping them transition from
this mindset of it always being
a cost center, to how Do we
integrate and find solutions
that will help drive revenue,
make the business more efficient
and really improve the overall
health of the organization, from
a infrastructure standpoint, a
security standpoint, and making
all their employees lives a lot
better. So I know it's a fancy
way of saying that these are all
solutions that I think will help
drive business in the right
direction for a lot of our
customers. And so the unique
thing for for me and my role is
I get to work alongside people
like John. John is who I met
through a family friend. And
again, the way that our paths
have aligned has obviously been
really unique and and I would
say it's been such a refreshing
pleasure to work with somebody
who has taken a new approach to
a traditional CIO role. And I'll
let John kind of highlight a
little bit more of that. But you
know John, I'd love to hear more
of your background on how you
ended up in this leadership
role, and talk about your career
path as it's advanced to where
it is today.
Keith Hawkey: I have heard, I've
met IT leaders that used to be
commercial fishermen. I've met
IT leaders that came from all
walks of life, all parts of the
world. I have never met an IT
leader that came from sales. So
that is a first. I can't wait to
hear about that story. Tell us a
little bit about how you move
from sales over to it, and who
did you have to woo very
carefully,
John Sotello: and it's a long
story. Thank you for the kind
words, Michael. I appreciate it
to step on something and go back
to I missed cloys. Think of
Cloyes as critical parts to an
engine, so timing chains, gears
and parts. We also acquired a
company called rotomaster out of
Canada that supplies turbos. And
if you're following the auto
industry right now, a lot of V
sixes are moving more to the
turbo side of the house. And
then we also acquired a company
out of den that allows for
timing tensioners and other
front of engine parts. Is the
best way to put it. So we're in
that critical path to what's in
the mechanical side of the
space. And with vehicles in
operation getting older,
obviously, we become a little
bit more critical to what's
going on with the car. My world,
my journey, my destiny, however
you want to put it, has been a
has been an interesting one. I
actually started off in sort of
sales cashier land at Toys R Us
in 1997 and sold video games in
what was called our zone at that
time. And decided, Hey, let's go
to college. And I lasted for
like, a semester and decided
this is not going to work for
me. And I spent about a year
remodeling Toys R USS in the
Dallas Fort Worth area. And
decided, Hey, maybe I should go
back to school, right? Let's go
try this again. And spent my
college career basically issuing
parts at an aviation company on
Love Field, working second and
third shift, arguably one of the
coolest jobs ever had, because I
could sell what they call VIP
aircraft, which you haven't
seen, is one of the coolest
things ever. And I had a friend
through my wife, that said, Hey,
you should come work the help
desk or the knock at a credit
card processor. And I think I
pushed back for four or five
months. And mind you, I was
commuting 110
came a month later for that same
person, saying, I think I found
the perfect job for you, and
it's the job I have today, and
it's all because I just took a
random call from her and just
talked and just like a normal
person, right? And, you know, I
went through four or five weeks
of interviews and ended up
accepting the role for Cloyes as
a CIO. And it for me, it was a,
I hate to say cheesy, but it was
a dream for me, because my goal
was to hit CIO by the time I was
40, and when I got this job, my
daughter's like, oh my gosh,
Dad, you made it. You made it.
My wife too. And I'm like, Yeah,
but I was three years late,
neither here nor there. But
that's to be long winded. That's
the short and the run of it.
It's a long story.
Keith Hawkey: If anybody wants
to know more, I'm curious, what
were some of the solutions that
you were selling back at that
three letter reseller? Great
question. What was it in vogue
at the time?
John Sotello: So this was, you
had a lot of VMware. You still
had a lot of on premise data
center stuff going on. I think
one of the coolest projects I
got to be a part of was a
healthcare company. And got to
know the person that continues
to lead that company that day.
And we did a full blown solution
for them for private internal
cloud, complete with a colo we
helped them spec out a co
location here in Plano, so soup
to nuts, space, floor, power,
and they even helped some with
some of the staffing and
consulting as well. So it was a
really, really cool project to
be a part of. So it was a Cisco
solution at the time, UCS, with
EMC in the background, anything
you could talk technically,
right? I mean, that was a cool
thing. We had nine reps at the
time in the office, and I had
been working with a lot of these
folks for years because they
were, you know, other companies
that I done business with. And
so it was like working a little
bit with, like your with your
family. And so I held the record
for the most visits in a given
week with customers, and I think
it was like 18, just because I
got.
Drug along to all the meetings,
which I'm very thankful for,
because that experience is
something you just can't live
again. Kudos to that.
Keith Hawkey: That's That's
amazing, John, I'm curious. So
you've done a lot of work, you
know, particularly in the
cybersecurity area, with Cloyes.
In your career, what are
cybersecurity has always been an
important topic, but in your
tenure, what are some of the
things that IT leaders typically
overlook when it comes to
assessing risk and attaching
value to cybersecurity
investments and the overall
posture like, what are you you
interchange with CIOs and CISOs
that are having to develop these
plans for the company. What are
some of the things that you find
that are easily overlooked?
John Sotello: Sure, believe it
or not, sometimes it's little
things. Sometimes it's not going
through and looking at an
account that hasn't been
activated. Sometimes it's not
double checking who your admins
are on system a system B, pick
your one that aligns to your
organization, and in other
cases, it's not taking a hard,
hard look at what your risks are
as an organization. And it's not
just, do I have the appropriate
next generation firewall in
front of our systems? Are we in
the right public cloud? It's not
things like that. It's like,
what is your business continuity
plan? What happens when the
lights go out? What happens if
we get hit with the inevitable
ransomware attack, those are
things that you can prepare for,
and so that when you do hit the
heat of the moment, you can
react accordingly to maintain
the continuity of your
organization. But also, no one
wants to be on the news right
now, especially in cyber and no
one wants to end up on some, you
know, dark web portal where your
information is getting pushed
out there. So really, it's not
necessarily looking at it
technically. Sometimes it's
looking about it. How do we make
sure that we continue to make
money as an organization and
aligning not only your solution
but your mindset with the two?
Because in some cases, some of
the things we do don't really
cost anything. You know, in a
previous life, we use the term,
use what you have and when you
have a lot of the technologies
that Microsoft gives you, or
even if you subscribe to the
things that a Meraki or Apollo
gets you, sometimes we don't use
that even 80% of that solution.
So before we go back to our
internal executive teams and
finance teams and ask, Hey, we
need a product X, we really need
to make sure we're consuming as
much of the existing baseline
that we already have. The last
thing anyone wants to do is to
go buy a product, half deploy
it, and then it becomes the
entryway for an issue, whether
that's a continuity issue or
cyber event.
Unknown: Yeah,
Michael Coloma: Yeah, makes
perfect sense, John, and so I'm
glad you brought this up, right?
Because one of the things that
we hear a lot from our customers
is, when evaluating a
cybersecurity solution, a lot of
times what comes up is, if it's
sometimes the mentality of its
if it's not broke, don't fix it,
right? Or, hey, you know, I'm
not too worried about this area
within our business, right,
because we haven't had any
issues here. Or, Hey, we just
haven't really run into this
instance that would provoke us
to look at a solution or a tool
that would shore up our security
measures. So what are some of
the things that you look at for
cloys, when you look at, how do
you stay on the forefront, or, I
guess, at the forefront, of the
cybersecurity space, right?
Like, how do you predict? Well,
hey, this is something we should
look at. If it's not currently
an issue, how do you be more
proactive versus reactive when
it comes to the cybersecurity
space?
John Sotello: Great question.
You do the best you can.
Honestly, regardless of how much
you try and stay ahead of it,
you're always gonna be a little
bit behind. And no one likes to
hear that. It's moving too fast
for you to be 100% secure,
right? The industry will give
you good news. There are good
things that you subscribe to.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool, not
just for, you know, connecting,
networking, finding your next
job, if that's your thing. I see
a lot of good information that
gets shared out there from the
cyberspace. There's a morning
newsletter that comes out every
day. There's websites like dark
web, bleeping computer things
like that. That'll give you good
insight. Now, that insight
sometimes is what the pain of
somebody else already feeling
right? Someone's already bit it.
So now you're out there, we've
used those tools to mitigate
issues proactively for our side
of the house, I hate to say one
person's issue becomes our
positive change. We work with a
group and subscribe to a group
called automotive information
sharing, and so we get a daily
report out that says, here's
what's going on in the
automotive industry. We have a
really good partner that we work
with in our MSP land right now
that we get good insight from
them and what's going on in the
market. And you know, how do we
protect our tools? How do we
protect our base? And I'll tell
you, one of the greatest things
I think we have going for us
right now is security in our
world, a top down thing. It's
not just me preaching it. Our
CEO preaches it too. Is
something we talk about every
town hall. We have a we have
something that goes up in every
town hall about why it's
important to watch what you
click on, and you know why we do
what we do to protect the
organization, because that's
what matters most. So I think
one of the other things that we
do proactively is we talk to our
employees about security. You.
We have security as a mandate
for training, and we grade you
on it, and we make sure that
we're watching it. So we have a
group in an it that is assigned
different organ, different
organizations in our company, in
different locations, that
watches how many points you get
on score, so that we can keep
track of how are you doing from
a cyber posture perspective. But
all of those things are
proactively helping prevent what
could happen. The tools are
great, but we've got to start
also making sure that we're
minding our employees as well.
Keith Hawkey: John, what are
some of the unique cybersecurity
challenges that are facing the
automotive industry?
John Sotello: Oh, man, it
depends on where you want to
start. If you want to start at
the car, you've got the
connected car and everything
associated with it. You've got,
still, you got the old school
OBD two port. They've done a lot
of work on what is the Secure
Access Gateway and things like
that. You've got a lot of
aftermarket tools and things
like that to give you access to
a car where you can reprogram
it. There's been a ton of
advance in terms of, you know,
at the car technology and
cybersecurity that can be done.
But when you start getting into
service providers and things
like that. We have information,
right? We have data on cars. You
have data, you know, consumers,
whatever. So data becomes the
real big one, right? And I don't
know if you follow some of this
stuff, but there's been some big
OEMs say, well, the data is
ours. You're on the road. Well,
data is the new goal, and it's
consumer information. It could
be location information, I
think, as we continue to see the
next decade as the connected car
evolves, as infotainments
evolve. I mean, if you look at I
have a 2019 truck, right? And my
infotainment is about a six by
six screen that I hardly pay
attention to, because it's,
well, it's old. It doesn't look
that cool. You get into
something right now, like a 25
GMC, and it's like you're in
your home entertainment system.
All of those things connect back
to something, whether that's in
the car outside the car, and
they coexist in the background,
along with the same things that
drive critical components, like
your ados, which helps drive
safety, your can modules drive
some of your braking systems. I
jokingly said this on a call
recently. It's like a rolling
data center right now with a
vehicle, in terms of not only
what happens with Compute and
Storage for everyone's fun
things on premise data centers,
but also what happens with the
data and the cyber side, data is
king. I know that our vehicles
are taking all they're gathering
all kinds of data on the
drivers. And I don't know how
much cloise is involved in this.
It's probably more of a
manufacturer, but I always
wonder where that data is going.
We, fortunately are not on that
component. We're more on the
mechanical repair side, right in
terms of what we do. If you look
at where these things are, it's
your sensors, right? So if you
look on the front of a bumper,
it's a little circle dot that
helps drive how far you can get
to a car. Or if you're in
assisted cruise control, you
know, how far does it start? You
know, a lot of it's going to go
to your OEMs. A lot of it's
going to go to on starts going
back to GM, stuff like that.
Mileage may vary, and I think
it's one of the things, as we
get through, you know, 2025,
2030,
and we start talking about
personal information, CCPA and
all these different privacy
acts, I think we're going to
start to see, hopefully, some
legislation around how that
looks and how we handle it, how
we manage it. There's tons of
good information that you can
glean off this stuff, right? And
I think you mentioned one of my
personal pet projects I want to
do is around bins. But there's a
ton of like, proactive
information that you can use
with the data that comes off
this car. But as everyone knows,
there's always going to be a
person, an entity, whatever,
that doesn't want to use it for
the greater good, but instead
wants to use it to do something
nefarious, or whatever you want
to call it.
Michael Coloma: You said
something that talked about like
the future of the the auto
industry, and it just really
kind of made me want to throw
this question at you, is you've
heard all the emphasis, and
whether it's through the the
manufacturers themselves, or
government legislation about
electric vehicles in the future,
of what that looks like. So one
of the things you just mentioned
was all this data that's being
consumed, right? So where do you
think Cloyes fits into this in
the next 510, 15 years, as it
relates to the automotive
industry, specifically around
the the the electric vehicle
standpoint, because what you
shared earlier about cloyds and
how they work on a lot of these
traditional fossil fuel burning
engines, right? What does that
look like for cloys? And it's
just something you brought up
that I wanted to ask about,
because GMC has, for example,
put an emphasis that by 2035 or
whatever they're going to have.
The majority of their vehicle
offerings are all going to be
electric, right? So I just want
to get your perspective on that.
Since you mentioned the data
standpoint, what the future of
the automotive industry looks
like,
John Sotello: Absolutely so for
Cloyes, more More to come on
that one, I think that's
something that's actively
underway in terms of, you know,
how the organization handles
some of those different parts
and the evolution that, you
know, I think the most important
thing to look at is, when you
look at ice or internal
combustible engines, they've got
a long way to go. We can flip
the switch and say, Hey, Ev,
mandate, 2030, you know, state a
that's great. But, you know,
we're still selling ice up until
that point. And the runway, I
think, for you.
Evolution for what's coming.
You're going to see still a
combination of reducing your
traditional v8 motors down to
your v6 with the Turbo, which is
good for us, right in terms of
turbo, but EV, full EV, there's
still components that kind of
are complementary to what we do
in the background. But I'm
really anxious to see what
happens with hybrid. If you guys
look back to what you know,
Toyota took on a lot of heat
years ago because they wouldn't
put a full blown EV strategy
out. They postured a little bit
and said, Hey, let's see what
happens. And their gamble paid
off, because hybrid is one of
the better ones out there right
now. Don't get me wrong, what
Tesla does and what BYD is doing
great strides, but I think
hybrid strikes that nice balance
between what is a full EV and
that whole I'm going to run out
of charge mentality versus, I
want to go full bore, you know,
gas. Give me my super unleaded.
Let me see how fast this thing
can go. It's going to be right
down the middle. And, you know,
for me personally, not not
associating with anything
business wise, but I think
there's going to be a right down
the middle approach. And you
can, you can read about. It's
nothing that I'm going to say
that's not already out there.
Most people, if we're going to
go Eevee, will always have an
ice vehicle in their driveway.
It's like a comfort level,
right? What do they call it
range anxiety, in terms of
making sure, you know, I can go
on a road trip from, you know,
Plano, Texas to Gulf Shores
Alabama, of all places. And if I
take my Ice Vehicle, I got two
stops, but if I took a full
blown EV, I'm probably talking
four or five. So I think it's
going to be somewhere in
between, is my guess.
Keith Hawkey: I just picked up
on what ice meant, internal
combustion engine. Okay, gotcha.
Okay. I was like, Ice Vehicle,
Ice Vehicle. I haven't heard of
an Ice Vehicle yet by now.
John Sotello: Well, now, now
I'll throw another one. Vio,
Keith Hawkey: vio, I don't know
John Sotello: vehicle and
operation, so you'll hear it
like, hey, what's the average
age of a vio vehicle and
operation? It's about 12.5
years. I think is the last
metrics I saw on that. So it
identifies what the what the
existing car park looks like.
Keith Hawkey: Ah, okay, I see.
John Sotello: And your car park
will vary by country too, as you
go across, right? So our car
park here is going to look a lot
different than what say in
France,
Keith Hawkey: speaking of other
initialisms, VIN numbers, yes,
you've managed to find time and
turn a pet project, hopefully
into into a reality here, and
this is a great example to all
of our listeners and all the IT
leaders Listening of those pet
projects that you have that you
think could work with the
organization, but you're too
caught up in the weeds, you're
too dug down and then trick the
trenches. John has a success
story here. Have to do with the
data around v i n numbers. V i n
is vehicle identification
number, I'm pretty sure, right?
John Sotello: Yep, you got it.
Keith Hawkey: They get that one
correct. Okay, share a little
bit about your your VIN number
project.
John Sotello: Yeah. So when last
year, we hired a new SVP of
marketing and product, right?
And he and I got on this data
conversation one day, I'm like,
Oh, great. This is fantastic.
Let's go and I still have the
original video I shot to him.
And it was like, hey, if we take
a VIN from our website, here's
the possibilities endless. So if
you talk about a VIN for a
second to everyone else, it's
like, a cool it's like, you
know, 18 characters, whatever,
but it tells and if you go back
to the people that car chase
like old vehicles and stuff like
that, and they're like, Hey,
that's a blue car VA motor like
it used to tell those stories a
lot better, probably, than what
they do today. But VINs have
evolved so much. And I think
this comes from me being in
collision too long and paying
way too much. As we move from
collision to mechanical, they
tell a story about what the
vehicle is. But if you break it
down, you get down into what's
called your make model trim,
which Keith, if you see it
somewhere, it'll say Y, m, t,
and it took me a bit to figure
out, what does all that mean.
But as we've evolved the
vehicle, and we've gone from
hey, here's a Toyota, just
regular Toyota truck now to
here's a Toyota Tacoma Limited
model with a TRD badge, all that
stuff now rolls up into event,
and it tells you, you know, the
engine, what trim it had on it,
you know, all these different
safety components that may be on
the vehicle, right? Well, then
you take that and you can go to
Toyota's website, or whoever,
and you can figure out, hey,
this is a 2025 Toyota Tacoma.
Here's your maintenance
schedule, right? Oh, and by the
way, you're at 25,000 miles. You
really should have changed your
cabin filter, right? So it's
telling you all these things.
Oh, and by the way, NHS says you
have a recall. You need to go
get that taken care of. So if
you take this idea that, then
you can figure out how to self
serve, to support your your
vehicle in the long term. But if
you're, you know, if you're
looking at from a service
provider, I'm coming in, I'm
going to get my car worked on,
whatever the case may be, it's
the same thing. Hey, you're at
50,000 you know, when you get
your oil change and the person
comes up, hey, it's time for the
$60 air filter. You could have
already answered that question
and stopped off and saved half
the money. But I think that
power, that I've been and how
you can bring it in and help
complement, call it, add on
feature sets, and helping make
the consumer make better
decisions about what they do
with their car is for the
better. And if you look at it in
terms of like the fleets and
things like that, we're talking
money when you're paying
attention to your maintenance
schedules and not.
Just the one that says on your
top left your windshield, it's
time to change your oil, but we
still have to grease bearings.
We still have to change spark
plugs. You still have to change
things in an EV like the list is
limited, just sometimes we don't
always remember that the owner's
manual is sitting on the right
side of your glove box, and you
don't think about it. And
wouldn't it be nice if it was
just a push notification to your
phone says, Hey, your car says
it needs to go to discount tire,
because that really not cool
thing called TPMS just said you
need to go to, you know,
Discount Tire because you're,
you know, five pounds under
pressure. So I think the VIN
piece outside of just what you
know, we did internally in in
talks of, how can we take you to
help structure, into getting
deeper into providing mechanical
feedback, but taking outside of
that and just going to the
everyday consumer is incredibly,
or could be incredibly powerful.
Michael Coloma: So John, you had
mentioned that your background
is being non traditional, with
the in the sense of having a
sales background, right? And as
I mentioned earlier on when we
were discussing this, is it has
normally always been a cost
center, 100% for most
organizations, where they just
look at it as you're just a line
item that literally just takes
away from our net profits. And
so, can you share an example of
something in your either your
current role or in a previous
role, where you have been in a
position of leadership, made a
recommendation for a solution or
a product that has positively
impacted the rest of the
organization from a revenue
standpoint and really helped to
change the way that it leaders
are viewed in the overall
portion of the organization to
more of a an assistant or
support model of generating
revenue for a company.
John Sotello: I'll give you a
couple one as of late. Look,
there's nothing cool. And I tell
this internally, there's nothing
cool, fancy or game changing
about EDI, which is a
transmission of data from
customer into a partner, right?
And that is something that
drives every facet of our
business. And so we kicked off
an EDI project probably about
February, just kicking the tires
around to see what we could do
with it. We've now morphed it
into something where we update
the business on it every week,
where we're at what we're doing
with it. How we're going to move
from, you know, a manual system
to more of an automation system
for certain parts of it. How can
we board customers faster?
Because the faster you can board
your customers, the faster
they're placing orders, right?
So your ROI hits up quicker, and
then, honestly, it's just
providing information and
feedback as you go along, in
terms of, Hey, we gotta, we
gotta reach out from, you know,
five customers. Which one of
these do you want to prioritize?
And it's having that, that
conversation back and forth with
your sales and operations
leaders that really helps one
you as an IT person to better
learn the business and what's
coming in there. Here's your
pipelines and forecasts and see
what's coming to help drive
revenue in the company. But also
your kind of information sharing
with the other side too. We
historically, kind of get viewed
as a black box, right? Partially
because we use buzzwords and
three letter words like, you
know, sand and RAM. But, you
know, giving folks a little bit
of a non it feedback of, hey, we
need contact information with
demographics, et cetera. This is
why, because it drives into a
four week timeline on our side.
And here's where you slot in. I
think giving that feedback
without being we chatted
earlier, the perception of just
opening a ticket goes a long
ways right. And in a previous
life, we were built on inbound
volume, so the more vehicles we
service, the more capacity we
had to have. On the other side,
the challenge is the first two
or three times when people are
like, hey, we need you to go
increase capacity, and then you
show up with a bill of $250,000
and you get the shock and awe.
No one talks to you for about a
week. That's a thing, by the
way, and until you can create
that value engine that says,
hey, we've done some analysis.
And for every, you know, 100
vehicles you add, here's what we
need to do to keep up with you
and finding ways to, kind of, I
say, Insert, but insert your way
into conversations when we're
about to go talk to, you know,
big customers, and not just
going into, oh, we just don't
have enough capacity. We can't
do that. We can't we as IT folks
can't just take that approach
anymore. We have to be able to
come back with factual numbers
that resonate with people. Hey,
we've got 1000 vehicles a month
coming inbound. Great. What's
the mix of the car park? Is it
going to be domestic? Is it
going to be European, like
individually? Which OEM is it
going to be? Because it matters
downstream to here. And when
people start taking in that
volume and really understanding
what it means to get to the
capacity and the pieces and
parts to it, you don't become
just a cost center anymore. You
become a key to go score the
business, because as soon as
someone scores that business,
regardless, same with EDI and
some of the other things, you
become the long pole because
we're longer in the supply
chain. In terms of, I need to go
buy capacity. And Michael, you
know, is better than me. It
could take 30 days. It could
take 60 days, depending on what
you're sourcing from and where
you're sourcing from. If people
aren't aware of that before they
Cycle. We become the, I hate to
say it roadblock, but we become
Keith Hawkey: Yeah, words of the
wise. John Sotello, it has been
go start a sale.
the person that helped, didn't
make the sale, right? It's all
very intricate and
interconnected, but I'll tell
you, you've got, from my
perspective, and it's, it's been
a hard road. I'll speak for
myself, too. It has not, not
been easy. Hence the and here
and here and great, but you got
to be willing to take your lump
sometimes. And you know, I think
I mentioned this to a friend of
mine, sometimes you gotta be
willing and okay, just to figure
out that today you're just gonna
clean the bathroom. And I mean
that as a as a kind of a
a pleasure having you on the IT
Matters podcast. You know, your
descriptor of you may just be
working on setting up accounts
today, because that's what needs
to be done. And that's okay.
You're still adding some type of
value, but you've almost still
gotta earn that keep right? It's
like in sales, you can, you can
go out and fish for new
customers all day long, but you
still got to maintain your
internal base at the same time.
last message really stuck out to
me. I typically ask kind of a
parting statement or parting
message to deliver, like,
imagine you were delivering the
keynote at the 2025 Ford CIO
Summit. And one thing that
really stuck out is, like you
said, you know, some days you
just have to clean the bathroom,
simple things, yep. And
metaphorically in the CIOs role,
I think that's that's incredibly
applicable and a lot of times
overlooked with the rule, some
days it's not fun, but you take
the days that are not as fun for
that day that you get a big win,
and remember the big wins. It
takes a lot of small wins to get
to a big win, and unfortunately,
it doesn't take a whole lot to
lose that big win too. So we've
got to be mindful as we maintain
the easy things, right? And keep
the hygiene going. John, how can
our listeners get a hold of you?
John Sotello: I'm on LinkedIn.
Hit me up. On LinkedIn. I'm
pretty active out there. I've
kind of avoided most other
social media channels at this
point. I don't know, I guess. I
guess that whole lot concept of
getting too old for Facebook is
coming along, but I'm always on
LinkedIn. Hit me up. I'm glad to
communicate I hit me on instant
messenger within there, happy to
provide any feedback. Do a quick
call, whatever it takes. Thank
you so much.
Keith Hawkey: We'll include your
LinkedIn profile account in the
show notes. And again, thanks
for joining the podcast. It's
been incredibly insightful.
Thank you, Michael, for CO
hosting, and we will catch you
next time.
John Sotello: Guys appreciate
it.
Michael Coloma: Thank you, John,
Aaron Bock: thank you for
listening, and we appreciate you
tuning into the IT Matters
podcast for support assessing
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