1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:03,600 Aaron Bock: Welcome to the IT Matters podcast hosted by 2 00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:07,530 Opkalla. We're an IT advisory firm that makes technology easy 3 00:00:07,530 --> 00:00:11,520 for your business. Our vendor neutral technology advisors work 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:14,730 directly with your team to assess technology needs and 5 00:00:14,730 --> 00:00:18,450 procure the best IT solutions for your organization. On this 6 00:00:18,450 --> 00:00:22,290 podcast, expect high level expertise from our hosts, plus 7 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:25,290 experience driven perspective from the leading experts on 8 00:00:25,290 --> 00:00:29,820 topics like AI, cybersecurity industry focused IT solutions, 9 00:00:29,820 --> 00:00:34,740 strategy and more. Now let's get into today's discussion on what 10 00:00:34,740 --> 00:00:35,910 matters in it. 11 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:40,460 Keith Hawkey: Welcome to the IT Matters podcast hosted by 12 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,840 Opkalla. At Opkalla, we help IT teams understand the busy 13 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:48,260 marketplace of technology strategy and services with a 14 00:00:48,260 --> 00:00:51,920 data driven approach. On this podcast, we invite technology 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,000 leaders to discuss challenges facing the modern IT department. 16 00:00:56,030 --> 00:00:59,090 And my name is Keith Hawkey, Technology Advisor with Opkalla, 17 00:00:59,180 --> 00:01:04,280 and I'm joined by my colleague and esteemed technology advisor, 18 00:01:04,310 --> 00:01:09,500 Michael Coloma, during this episode, we sit down with John 19 00:01:09,620 --> 00:01:15,260 Sotello, the CIO of Cloyes Gear and Products whose career defies 20 00:01:15,260 --> 00:01:18,980 convention, starting in sales and rising into IT leadership. 21 00:01:19,010 --> 00:01:21,620 We'll explore the pivotal moments and decisions and 22 00:01:21,620 --> 00:01:24,650 mindset shifts to help bridge the gap between business 23 00:01:24,650 --> 00:01:29,210 outcomes and technology execution. And we'll also unpack 24 00:01:29,210 --> 00:01:33,680 the future of IT infrastructure and operations, including how AI 25 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,670 and data are poised to transform the automotive industry. He 26 00:01:37,670 --> 00:01:41,090 shares his bold vision for innovation, along with some 27 00:01:41,090 --> 00:01:44,960 personal projects, like a VIN based initiative that could 28 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:48,770 reshape how we understand vehicle data. John Sotello, 29 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,800 welcome to the IT Matters podcast. 30 00:01:51,830 --> 00:01:53,300 John Sotello: Thank you, Keith, thank you. Michael, appreciate 31 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:58,586 Keith Hawkey: But before we begin, I'd like to play a little 32 00:01:58,660 --> 00:02:03,078 game. We're going to play a game of two truths and a lie. It 33 00:02:03,151 --> 00:02:07,348 focused. And Michael, you can play too. So I'll say these 34 00:02:06,380 --> 00:02:07,190 it. 35 00:02:07,422 --> 00:02:12,134 three things that have happened in it recently, and you guys can 36 00:02:11,660 --> 00:02:19,220 Michael Coloma: Love to have you. 37 00:02:12,208 --> 00:02:16,699 try to guess where which one is the lie? Are we ready? Ready? 38 00:02:16,773 --> 00:02:19,350 Let's go. All right. So at CES 2025 39 00:02:19,380 --> 00:02:25,110 a Japanese company unveiled a robotic cat named nicojita Fufu 40 00:02:25,170 --> 00:02:30,210 designed to cool down hot beverages by blowing air in 41 00:02:30,210 --> 00:02:34,500 human like intervals. So that is option number one. Number two. 42 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,160 Researchers developed an AI interface that assists with 43 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,550 individuals with speech disabilities in delivering 44 00:02:41,580 --> 00:02:45,300 timely jokes during conversations, enhancing their 45 00:02:45,300 --> 00:02:49,170 social interactions. Number three, a startup introduced a 46 00:02:49,170 --> 00:02:53,520 smart toaster that analyzes facial expressions each morning 47 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,690 to determine your mood and adjust the toast crispiness 48 00:02:57,720 --> 00:02:58,590 level accordingly. 49 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,420 John Sotello: Those are unique. Yeah. Thank you. Clearly, I 50 00:03:01,420 --> 00:03:02,740 should have gone to CES this year, 51 00:03:02,740 --> 00:03:40,499 Michael Coloma: John, give me your thoughts first and then, 52 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:11,667 I'm a little hard on the on the cat thing. I'm gonna go false on 53 00:03:11,716 --> 00:03:14,715 the cat thing. But again, could be totally wrong, because the 54 00:03:14,765 --> 00:03:17,813 way we're taking technology and AI is defying some things that 55 00:03:17,862 --> 00:03:20,764 you and I didn't think were happened. I'm gonna go truth on 56 00:03:20,813 --> 00:03:23,616 the AI speech disability, because I think that would be a 57 00:03:23,665 --> 00:03:26,763 really good tool for people that kind of have struggles in that 58 00:03:26,812 --> 00:03:29,812 arena, and also, not just speech impediments, but also social 59 00:03:29,861 --> 00:03:33,008 anxiety, with talking with folks and breaking the ice. And I can 60 00:03:33,057 --> 00:03:36,106 totally see a smart toaster in terms of, how do I predict your 61 00:03:36,155 --> 00:03:39,154 mood? Do I give you another cup of coffee? Do you do the cold 62 00:03:39,204 --> 00:03:42,400 brew today because it looks like you need one? So I'm going to go 63 00:03:41,377 --> 00:04:33,187 and then I'll make my give us your yes first, and then I'll 64 00:03:42,449 --> 00:03:45,400 one false, two, true, three, true. Cat for 500 Yeah, for 500 65 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,449 Keith Hawkey: There we go. I got you down for 500 John, what 66 00:03:47,493 --> 00:03:48,340 about you? Michael? 67 00:03:48,340 --> 00:03:51,541 Michael Coloma: I'm gonna go the other way here. I'm gonna say 68 00:03:51,611 --> 00:03:55,995 that the cat, beverage cooling item is true. I'm gonna say that 69 00:03:56,065 --> 00:03:59,893 the tool to help people with speech impediments and the 70 00:03:59,962 --> 00:04:04,347 ability to help them communicate is true as well, but I'm going 71 00:04:04,417 --> 00:04:08,593 to say that the majority of people may shift their breakfast 72 00:04:08,662 --> 00:04:13,047 tendency. So I think the demand for a toaster might be a little 73 00:04:13,117 --> 00:04:17,223 less. So I think over catering to to more of the masses, as 74 00:04:17,293 --> 00:04:21,468 cool as a cat beverage cooler would be. I think there's less 75 00:04:21,538 --> 00:04:25,714 people in demand for a toaster. So that is my guess. I think 76 00:04:25,784 --> 00:04:29,960 first two are true, and the third one is the lie, all right. 77 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,440 Keith Hawkey: And Michael, you were right. Oh, man, 78 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,459 Michael Coloma: no insider knowledge, by the way. I want to 79 00:04:34,066 --> 00:04:46,360 make my guess. 80 00:04:36,530 --> 00:04:39,620 make very clear, that's right, that's right. 81 00:04:39,620 --> 00:04:44,087 Keith Hawkey: the nikujita Fufu robotic cat was indeed showcased 82 00:04:44,177 --> 00:04:45,160 at CES 2025 83 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:02,470 Keith Hawkey: Ability to engage in humorous conversations. 84 00:05:02,500 --> 00:05:05,740 However, there's no mood detecting toaster. No such 85 00:05:05,740 --> 00:05:09,280 device has been introduced that I know of, at least it's coming, 86 00:05:09,310 --> 00:05:11,500 and I'd like to figure out how I could be a part of that data 87 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:14,500 transition. It's coming, how you can monetize with some levity 88 00:05:14,500 --> 00:05:17,290 here. Let's get started. John, can you tell us a little bit 89 00:05:17,290 --> 00:05:21,790 about your role as CIO of Cloyes, and what do you guys do 90 00:05:21,790 --> 00:05:23,620 at Cloyes? What's the high level here? 91 00:05:23,650 --> 00:05:26,470 John Sotello: Sure. So CIO, fancy title for making sure that 92 00:05:26,470 --> 00:05:28,870 technology complements the business and keeps us driving. 93 00:05:28,900 --> 00:05:31,690 So that includes the not so fun stuff, like making sure our 94 00:05:31,690 --> 00:05:34,330 distributions stay up from an internet perspective, making 95 00:05:34,330 --> 00:05:38,110 sure that Microsoft 365 works and everyone's favorite fun 96 00:05:38,110 --> 00:05:40,330 tool, which is ERP up and running. But also we get to 97 00:05:40,330 --> 00:05:42,970 dabble in some of the things that help drive business right 98 00:05:42,970 --> 00:05:45,940 so connecting transactions from our customers into our internal 99 00:05:45,940 --> 00:05:48,340 systems, managing some of the data lakes and some of the 100 00:05:48,340 --> 00:05:51,070 dashboards that we really put some effort into over the last 101 00:05:51,070 --> 00:05:54,490 year, and providing insights to our internal teams to help drive 102 00:05:54,490 --> 00:05:56,650 business decisions. But more importantly, I think we've kind 103 00:05:56,650 --> 00:05:59,530 of become a little bit of the glue that binds when things come 104 00:05:59,530 --> 00:06:01,930 in. From a technology perspective. For example, our 105 00:06:01,930 --> 00:06:04,360 operations team is looking at a transportation management 106 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,110 system. We're kind of that gap between, hey, operationally, 107 00:06:08,110 --> 00:06:11,380 here's how it works technically, here's how we integrate it. And 108 00:06:11,380 --> 00:06:13,780 similar story to things like, hey, the scan guns aren't 109 00:06:13,780 --> 00:06:16,450 working. What can we do to go look at them? And you know, some 110 00:06:16,450 --> 00:06:19,090 of those things are easy fixes, and some of them turn out to be 111 00:06:19,090 --> 00:06:22,120 that break fix that you should have found out about two years 112 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:24,370 ago, if you will, also on the forefront of some of our 113 00:06:24,370 --> 00:06:26,950 acquisitions and integrations that we've done over the last 114 00:06:26,950 --> 00:06:27,490 couple of years. 115 00:06:27,500 --> 00:06:27,620 Unknown: of 116 00:06:27,820 --> 00:06:30,460 Keith Hawkey: Awesome. Yeah. Thank you for that. Michael, I 117 00:06:30,460 --> 00:06:32,230 think this is the first time that you've joined the IT 118 00:06:32,230 --> 00:06:33,730 Matters podcast. Am I right? 119 00:06:33,850 --> 00:06:34,810 Michael Coloma: That is correct. 120 00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:36,940 Keith Hawkey: Can you tell us a little bit about your role at 121 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:38,200 Opkalla? What do you do? 122 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,060 Michael Coloma: Yeah. So very similar to your role, I work 123 00:06:41,060 --> 00:06:44,630 with our customers to obviously help their team procure 124 00:06:44,690 --> 00:06:47,390 solutions that are going to optimize, make their 125 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,930 organizations way more efficient, help keep them on the 126 00:06:50,930 --> 00:06:54,830 forefront of an ever changing world when it comes to it, and 127 00:06:54,830 --> 00:06:58,160 helping them transition from this mindset of it always being 128 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:01,760 a cost center, to how Do we integrate and find solutions 129 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:05,060 that will help drive revenue, make the business more efficient 130 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,820 and really improve the overall health of the organization, from 131 00:07:07,820 --> 00:07:11,990 a infrastructure standpoint, a security standpoint, and making 132 00:07:11,990 --> 00:07:15,500 all their employees lives a lot better. So I know it's a fancy 133 00:07:15,740 --> 00:07:19,280 way of saying that these are all solutions that I think will help 134 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:21,860 drive business in the right direction for a lot of our 135 00:07:21,860 --> 00:07:26,210 customers. And so the unique thing for for me and my role is 136 00:07:26,210 --> 00:07:29,180 I get to work alongside people like John. John is who I met 137 00:07:29,180 --> 00:07:32,510 through a family friend. And again, the way that our paths 138 00:07:32,510 --> 00:07:36,380 have aligned has obviously been really unique and and I would 139 00:07:36,380 --> 00:07:40,700 say it's been such a refreshing pleasure to work with somebody 140 00:07:40,700 --> 00:07:46,070 who has taken a new approach to a traditional CIO role. And I'll 141 00:07:46,070 --> 00:07:48,920 let John kind of highlight a little bit more of that. But you 142 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,070 know John, I'd love to hear more of your background on how you 143 00:07:52,070 --> 00:07:56,420 ended up in this leadership role, and talk about your career 144 00:07:56,420 --> 00:07:59,480 path as it's advanced to where it is today. 145 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,080 Keith Hawkey: I have heard, I've met IT leaders that used to be 146 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:08,240 commercial fishermen. I've met IT leaders that came from all 147 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:13,400 walks of life, all parts of the world. I have never met an IT 148 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:18,050 leader that came from sales. So that is a first. I can't wait to 149 00:08:18,050 --> 00:08:21,530 hear about that story. Tell us a little bit about how you move 150 00:08:21,530 --> 00:08:26,030 from sales over to it, and who did you have to woo very 151 00:08:26,030 --> 00:08:26,480 carefully, 152 00:08:26,500 --> 00:08:28,570 John Sotello: and it's a long story. Thank you for the kind 153 00:08:28,570 --> 00:08:31,390 words, Michael. I appreciate it to step on something and go back 154 00:08:31,390 --> 00:08:36,010 to I missed cloys. Think of Cloyes as critical parts to an 155 00:08:36,010 --> 00:08:39,460 engine, so timing chains, gears and parts. We also acquired a 156 00:08:39,460 --> 00:08:43,480 company called rotomaster out of Canada that supplies turbos. And 157 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,060 if you're following the auto industry right now, a lot of V 158 00:08:46,060 --> 00:08:49,150 sixes are moving more to the turbo side of the house. And 159 00:08:49,150 --> 00:08:52,510 then we also acquired a company out of den that allows for 160 00:08:52,510 --> 00:08:56,080 timing tensioners and other front of engine parts. Is the 161 00:08:56,080 --> 00:09:00,040 best way to put it. So we're in that critical path to what's in 162 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,500 the mechanical side of the space. And with vehicles in 163 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:04,930 operation getting older, obviously, we become a little 164 00:09:04,930 --> 00:09:08,260 bit more critical to what's going on with the car. My world, 165 00:09:08,260 --> 00:09:10,420 my journey, my destiny, however you want to put it, has been a 166 00:09:10,450 --> 00:09:13,540 has been an interesting one. I actually started off in sort of 167 00:09:13,540 --> 00:09:18,400 sales cashier land at Toys R Us in 1997 and sold video games in 168 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,370 what was called our zone at that time. And decided, Hey, let's go 169 00:09:21,370 --> 00:09:24,490 to college. And I lasted for like, a semester and decided 170 00:09:24,490 --> 00:09:28,000 this is not going to work for me. And I spent about a year 171 00:09:28,030 --> 00:09:30,550 remodeling Toys R USS in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And 172 00:09:30,550 --> 00:09:33,190 decided, Hey, maybe I should go back to school, right? Let's go 173 00:09:33,190 --> 00:09:37,360 try this again. And spent my college career basically issuing 174 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,240 parts at an aviation company on Love Field, working second and 175 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,970 third shift, arguably one of the coolest jobs ever had, because I 176 00:09:42,970 --> 00:09:45,850 could sell what they call VIP aircraft, which you haven't 177 00:09:45,850 --> 00:09:49,300 seen, is one of the coolest things ever. And I had a friend 178 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,450 through my wife, that said, Hey, you should come work the help 179 00:09:52,450 --> 00:09:55,990 desk or the knock at a credit card processor. And I think I 180 00:09:55,990 --> 00:09:58,900 pushed back for four or five months. And mind you, I was 181 00:09:58,900 --> 00:09:59,920 commuting 110 182 00:13:23,410 --> 00:13:26,410 came a month later for that same person, saying, I think I found 183 00:13:26,410 --> 00:13:29,710 the perfect job for you, and it's the job I have today, and 184 00:13:29,710 --> 00:13:33,070 it's all because I just took a random call from her and just 185 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,190 talked and just like a normal person, right? And, you know, I 186 00:13:36,190 --> 00:13:39,370 went through four or five weeks of interviews and ended up 187 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:43,150 accepting the role for Cloyes as a CIO. And it for me, it was a, 188 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,270 I hate to say cheesy, but it was a dream for me, because my goal 189 00:13:46,270 --> 00:13:49,360 was to hit CIO by the time I was 40, and when I got this job, my 190 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:51,430 daughter's like, oh my gosh, Dad, you made it. You made it. 191 00:13:51,430 --> 00:13:53,170 My wife too. And I'm like, Yeah, but I was three years late, 192 00:13:54,580 --> 00:13:57,280 neither here nor there. But that's to be long winded. That's 193 00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:59,350 the short and the run of it. It's a long story. 194 00:13:59,350 --> 00:14:01,330 Keith Hawkey: If anybody wants to know more, I'm curious, what 195 00:14:01,330 --> 00:14:05,620 were some of the solutions that you were selling back at that 196 00:14:05,620 --> 00:14:08,800 three letter reseller? Great question. What was it in vogue 197 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:09,460 at the time? 198 00:14:09,580 --> 00:14:12,790 John Sotello: So this was, you had a lot of VMware. You still 199 00:14:12,790 --> 00:14:15,370 had a lot of on premise data center stuff going on. I think 200 00:14:15,370 --> 00:14:17,530 one of the coolest projects I got to be a part of was a 201 00:14:17,530 --> 00:14:21,550 healthcare company. And got to know the person that continues 202 00:14:21,550 --> 00:14:24,190 to lead that company that day. And we did a full blown solution 203 00:14:24,190 --> 00:14:27,280 for them for private internal cloud, complete with a colo we 204 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:29,950 helped them spec out a co location here in Plano, so soup 205 00:14:29,950 --> 00:14:33,430 to nuts, space, floor, power, and they even helped some with 206 00:14:33,430 --> 00:14:35,530 some of the staffing and consulting as well. So it was a 207 00:14:35,530 --> 00:14:38,020 really, really cool project to be a part of. So it was a Cisco 208 00:14:38,020 --> 00:14:41,290 solution at the time, UCS, with EMC in the background, anything 209 00:14:41,290 --> 00:14:43,480 you could talk technically, right? I mean, that was a cool 210 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,600 thing. We had nine reps at the time in the office, and I had 211 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:48,850 been working with a lot of these folks for years because they 212 00:14:48,850 --> 00:14:51,820 were, you know, other companies that I done business with. And 213 00:14:51,820 --> 00:14:53,620 so it was like working a little bit with, like your with your 214 00:14:53,620 --> 00:14:57,340 family. And so I held the record for the most visits in a given 215 00:14:57,340 --> 00:14:59,800 week with customers, and I think it was like 18, just because I 216 00:14:59,800 --> 00:14:59,980 got. 217 00:14:59,980 --> 00:15:02,200 Drug along to all the meetings, which I'm very thankful for, 218 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:04,570 because that experience is something you just can't live 219 00:15:04,570 --> 00:15:05,830 again. Kudos to that. 220 00:15:05,860 --> 00:15:09,070 Keith Hawkey: That's That's amazing, John, I'm curious. So 221 00:15:09,100 --> 00:15:12,040 you've done a lot of work, you know, particularly in the 222 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,820 cybersecurity area, with Cloyes. In your career, what are 223 00:15:16,150 --> 00:15:20,260 cybersecurity has always been an important topic, but in your 224 00:15:20,260 --> 00:15:25,180 tenure, what are some of the things that IT leaders typically 225 00:15:25,180 --> 00:15:31,720 overlook when it comes to assessing risk and attaching 226 00:15:31,900 --> 00:15:35,650 value to cybersecurity investments and the overall 227 00:15:35,650 --> 00:15:40,270 posture like, what are you you interchange with CIOs and CISOs 228 00:15:40,270 --> 00:15:45,460 that are having to develop these plans for the company. What are 229 00:15:45,460 --> 00:15:48,310 some of the things that you find that are easily overlooked? 230 00:15:48,370 --> 00:15:50,410 John Sotello: Sure, believe it or not, sometimes it's little 231 00:15:50,410 --> 00:15:52,840 things. Sometimes it's not going through and looking at an 232 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:55,330 account that hasn't been activated. Sometimes it's not 233 00:15:55,330 --> 00:15:59,080 double checking who your admins are on system a system B, pick 234 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,020 your one that aligns to your organization, and in other 235 00:16:02,020 --> 00:16:05,710 cases, it's not taking a hard, hard look at what your risks are 236 00:16:05,710 --> 00:16:09,880 as an organization. And it's not just, do I have the appropriate 237 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:12,640 next generation firewall in front of our systems? Are we in 238 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:15,370 the right public cloud? It's not things like that. It's like, 239 00:16:15,370 --> 00:16:18,520 what is your business continuity plan? What happens when the 240 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,910 lights go out? What happens if we get hit with the inevitable 241 00:16:21,910 --> 00:16:25,390 ransomware attack, those are things that you can prepare for, 242 00:16:25,510 --> 00:16:28,240 and so that when you do hit the heat of the moment, you can 243 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,330 react accordingly to maintain the continuity of your 244 00:16:31,330 --> 00:16:34,660 organization. But also, no one wants to be on the news right 245 00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:38,410 now, especially in cyber and no one wants to end up on some, you 246 00:16:38,410 --> 00:16:41,230 know, dark web portal where your information is getting pushed 247 00:16:41,230 --> 00:16:44,620 out there. So really, it's not necessarily looking at it 248 00:16:44,620 --> 00:16:47,380 technically. Sometimes it's looking about it. How do we make 249 00:16:47,380 --> 00:16:50,350 sure that we continue to make money as an organization and 250 00:16:50,350 --> 00:16:53,560 aligning not only your solution but your mindset with the two? 251 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,500 Because in some cases, some of the things we do don't really 252 00:16:56,500 --> 00:16:58,870 cost anything. You know, in a previous life, we use the term, 253 00:16:58,870 --> 00:17:02,500 use what you have and when you have a lot of the technologies 254 00:17:02,500 --> 00:17:05,530 that Microsoft gives you, or even if you subscribe to the 255 00:17:05,530 --> 00:17:09,400 things that a Meraki or Apollo gets you, sometimes we don't use 256 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,870 that even 80% of that solution. So before we go back to our 257 00:17:13,870 --> 00:17:17,140 internal executive teams and finance teams and ask, Hey, we 258 00:17:17,140 --> 00:17:20,410 need a product X, we really need to make sure we're consuming as 259 00:17:20,410 --> 00:17:23,530 much of the existing baseline that we already have. The last 260 00:17:23,530 --> 00:17:28,030 thing anyone wants to do is to go buy a product, half deploy 261 00:17:28,030 --> 00:17:30,910 it, and then it becomes the entryway for an issue, whether 262 00:17:30,910 --> 00:17:33,100 that's a continuity issue or cyber event. 263 00:17:33,380 --> 00:17:33,860 Unknown: Yeah, 264 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,430 Michael Coloma: Yeah, makes perfect sense, John, and so I'm 265 00:17:36,430 --> 00:17:39,670 glad you brought this up, right? Because one of the things that 266 00:17:39,700 --> 00:17:43,060 we hear a lot from our customers is, when evaluating a 267 00:17:43,060 --> 00:17:46,750 cybersecurity solution, a lot of times what comes up is, if it's 268 00:17:46,780 --> 00:17:49,720 sometimes the mentality of its if it's not broke, don't fix it, 269 00:17:50,140 --> 00:17:53,770 right? Or, hey, you know, I'm not too worried about this area 270 00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,650 within our business, right, because we haven't had any 271 00:17:56,650 --> 00:18:00,460 issues here. Or, Hey, we just haven't really run into this 272 00:18:00,730 --> 00:18:05,110 instance that would provoke us to look at a solution or a tool 273 00:18:05,110 --> 00:18:09,520 that would shore up our security measures. So what are some of 274 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,060 the things that you look at for cloys, when you look at, how do 275 00:18:13,060 --> 00:18:16,720 you stay on the forefront, or, I guess, at the forefront, of the 276 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,020 cybersecurity space, right? Like, how do you predict? Well, 277 00:18:20,020 --> 00:18:22,750 hey, this is something we should look at. If it's not currently 278 00:18:22,750 --> 00:18:25,930 an issue, how do you be more proactive versus reactive when 279 00:18:25,930 --> 00:18:27,730 it comes to the cybersecurity space? 280 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,440 John Sotello: Great question. You do the best you can. 281 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,290 Honestly, regardless of how much you try and stay ahead of it, 282 00:18:32,290 --> 00:18:34,330 you're always gonna be a little bit behind. And no one likes to 283 00:18:34,330 --> 00:18:38,020 hear that. It's moving too fast for you to be 100% secure, 284 00:18:38,020 --> 00:18:40,690 right? The industry will give you good news. There are good 285 00:18:40,690 --> 00:18:44,230 things that you subscribe to. LinkedIn is a powerful tool, not 286 00:18:44,230 --> 00:18:47,500 just for, you know, connecting, networking, finding your next 287 00:18:47,500 --> 00:18:50,680 job, if that's your thing. I see a lot of good information that 288 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:52,750 gets shared out there from the cyberspace. There's a morning 289 00:18:52,750 --> 00:18:55,990 newsletter that comes out every day. There's websites like dark 290 00:18:55,990 --> 00:18:58,540 web, bleeping computer things like that. That'll give you good 291 00:18:58,540 --> 00:19:01,960 insight. Now, that insight sometimes is what the pain of 292 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,360 somebody else already feeling right? Someone's already bit it. 293 00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:07,840 So now you're out there, we've used those tools to mitigate 294 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,590 issues proactively for our side of the house, I hate to say one 295 00:19:11,590 --> 00:19:14,860 person's issue becomes our positive change. We work with a 296 00:19:14,860 --> 00:19:17,800 group and subscribe to a group called automotive information 297 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,260 sharing, and so we get a daily report out that says, here's 298 00:19:20,260 --> 00:19:22,240 what's going on in the automotive industry. We have a 299 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,630 really good partner that we work with in our MSP land right now 300 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:28,780 that we get good insight from them and what's going on in the 301 00:19:28,780 --> 00:19:31,780 market. And you know, how do we protect our tools? How do we 302 00:19:31,780 --> 00:19:34,960 protect our base? And I'll tell you, one of the greatest things 303 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,630 I think we have going for us right now is security in our 304 00:19:37,630 --> 00:19:40,510 world, a top down thing. It's not just me preaching it. Our 305 00:19:40,510 --> 00:19:43,780 CEO preaches it too. Is something we talk about every 306 00:19:43,780 --> 00:19:46,510 town hall. We have a we have something that goes up in every 307 00:19:46,510 --> 00:19:49,030 town hall about why it's important to watch what you 308 00:19:49,030 --> 00:19:52,060 click on, and you know why we do what we do to protect the 309 00:19:52,060 --> 00:19:54,760 organization, because that's what matters most. So I think 310 00:19:54,910 --> 00:19:58,330 one of the other things that we do proactively is we talk to our 311 00:19:58,330 --> 00:19:59,500 employees about security. You. 312 00:20:00,100 --> 00:20:04,030 We have security as a mandate for training, and we grade you 313 00:20:04,030 --> 00:20:06,580 on it, and we make sure that we're watching it. So we have a 314 00:20:06,580 --> 00:20:10,660 group in an it that is assigned different organ, different 315 00:20:10,660 --> 00:20:13,720 organizations in our company, in different locations, that 316 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,390 watches how many points you get on score, so that we can keep 317 00:20:16,390 --> 00:20:19,870 track of how are you doing from a cyber posture perspective. But 318 00:20:19,900 --> 00:20:23,140 all of those things are proactively helping prevent what 319 00:20:23,140 --> 00:20:25,510 could happen. The tools are great, but we've got to start 320 00:20:25,510 --> 00:20:28,210 also making sure that we're minding our employees as well. 321 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,570 Keith Hawkey: John, what are some of the unique cybersecurity 322 00:20:31,570 --> 00:20:34,300 challenges that are facing the automotive industry? 323 00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:36,970 John Sotello: Oh, man, it depends on where you want to 324 00:20:36,970 --> 00:20:39,730 start. If you want to start at the car, you've got the 325 00:20:39,730 --> 00:20:42,340 connected car and everything associated with it. You've got, 326 00:20:42,370 --> 00:20:45,640 still, you got the old school OBD two port. They've done a lot 327 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,160 of work on what is the Secure Access Gateway and things like 328 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:50,470 that. You've got a lot of aftermarket tools and things 329 00:20:50,470 --> 00:20:52,870 like that to give you access to a car where you can reprogram 330 00:20:52,870 --> 00:20:55,540 it. There's been a ton of advance in terms of, you know, 331 00:20:55,540 --> 00:20:58,270 at the car technology and cybersecurity that can be done. 332 00:20:58,330 --> 00:21:00,700 But when you start getting into service providers and things 333 00:21:00,700 --> 00:21:04,690 like that. We have information, right? We have data on cars. You 334 00:21:04,690 --> 00:21:08,320 have data, you know, consumers, whatever. So data becomes the 335 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:10,660 real big one, right? And I don't know if you follow some of this 336 00:21:10,660 --> 00:21:13,150 stuff, but there's been some big OEMs say, well, the data is 337 00:21:13,150 --> 00:21:16,690 ours. You're on the road. Well, data is the new goal, and it's 338 00:21:16,690 --> 00:21:19,090 consumer information. It could be location information, I 339 00:21:19,090 --> 00:21:22,630 think, as we continue to see the next decade as the connected car 340 00:21:22,630 --> 00:21:27,580 evolves, as infotainments evolve. I mean, if you look at I 341 00:21:27,580 --> 00:21:31,240 have a 2019 truck, right? And my infotainment is about a six by 342 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,300 six screen that I hardly pay attention to, because it's, 343 00:21:34,330 --> 00:21:37,270 well, it's old. It doesn't look that cool. You get into 344 00:21:37,270 --> 00:21:40,090 something right now, like a 25 GMC, and it's like you're in 345 00:21:40,090 --> 00:21:44,410 your home entertainment system. All of those things connect back 346 00:21:44,410 --> 00:21:47,470 to something, whether that's in the car outside the car, and 347 00:21:47,470 --> 00:21:50,770 they coexist in the background, along with the same things that 348 00:21:50,770 --> 00:21:54,340 drive critical components, like your ados, which helps drive 349 00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:57,550 safety, your can modules drive some of your braking systems. I 350 00:21:57,550 --> 00:21:59,980 jokingly said this on a call recently. It's like a rolling 351 00:21:59,980 --> 00:22:03,730 data center right now with a vehicle, in terms of not only 352 00:22:03,730 --> 00:22:06,400 what happens with Compute and Storage for everyone's fun 353 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,560 things on premise data centers, but also what happens with the 354 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,800 data and the cyber side, data is king. I know that our vehicles 355 00:22:11,830 --> 00:22:16,270 are taking all they're gathering all kinds of data on the 356 00:22:16,270 --> 00:22:19,780 drivers. And I don't know how much cloise is involved in this. 357 00:22:19,780 --> 00:22:22,240 It's probably more of a manufacturer, but I always 358 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,660 wonder where that data is going. We, fortunately are not on that 359 00:22:25,660 --> 00:22:28,150 component. We're more on the mechanical repair side, right in 360 00:22:28,150 --> 00:22:31,150 terms of what we do. If you look at where these things are, it's 361 00:22:31,150 --> 00:22:33,250 your sensors, right? So if you look on the front of a bumper, 362 00:22:33,250 --> 00:22:36,220 it's a little circle dot that helps drive how far you can get 363 00:22:36,220 --> 00:22:38,770 to a car. Or if you're in assisted cruise control, you 364 00:22:38,770 --> 00:22:41,740 know, how far does it start? You know, a lot of it's going to go 365 00:22:41,740 --> 00:22:45,400 to your OEMs. A lot of it's going to go to on starts going 366 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,490 back to GM, stuff like that. Mileage may vary, and I think 367 00:22:48,490 --> 00:22:51,700 it's one of the things, as we get through, you know, 2025, 368 00:22:51,730 --> 00:22:52,360 2030, 369 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,860 and we start talking about personal information, CCPA and 370 00:22:56,860 --> 00:22:58,810 all these different privacy acts, I think we're going to 371 00:22:58,810 --> 00:23:02,110 start to see, hopefully, some legislation around how that 372 00:23:02,110 --> 00:23:05,110 looks and how we handle it, how we manage it. There's tons of 373 00:23:05,110 --> 00:23:07,990 good information that you can glean off this stuff, right? And 374 00:23:08,020 --> 00:23:10,390 I think you mentioned one of my personal pet projects I want to 375 00:23:10,390 --> 00:23:13,150 do is around bins. But there's a ton of like, proactive 376 00:23:13,150 --> 00:23:15,670 information that you can use with the data that comes off 377 00:23:15,670 --> 00:23:19,000 this car. But as everyone knows, there's always going to be a 378 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,030 person, an entity, whatever, that doesn't want to use it for 379 00:23:22,030 --> 00:23:25,480 the greater good, but instead wants to use it to do something 380 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:26,950 nefarious, or whatever you want to call it. 381 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,520 Michael Coloma: You said something that talked about like 382 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:31,100 the future of the the auto industry, and it just really 383 00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:35,540 kind of made me want to throw this question at you, is you've 384 00:23:35,540 --> 00:23:39,770 heard all the emphasis, and whether it's through the the 385 00:23:39,770 --> 00:23:43,280 manufacturers themselves, or government legislation about 386 00:23:43,790 --> 00:23:47,120 electric vehicles in the future, of what that looks like. So one 387 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:49,430 of the things you just mentioned was all this data that's being 388 00:23:49,430 --> 00:23:54,860 consumed, right? So where do you think Cloyes fits into this in 389 00:23:54,860 --> 00:23:58,940 the next 510, 15 years, as it relates to the automotive 390 00:23:58,940 --> 00:24:02,450 industry, specifically around the the the electric vehicle 391 00:24:02,450 --> 00:24:05,630 standpoint, because what you shared earlier about cloyds and 392 00:24:05,630 --> 00:24:10,760 how they work on a lot of these traditional fossil fuel burning 393 00:24:10,970 --> 00:24:14,630 engines, right? What does that look like for cloys? And it's 394 00:24:14,630 --> 00:24:16,640 just something you brought up that I wanted to ask about, 395 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:20,450 because GMC has, for example, put an emphasis that by 2035 or 396 00:24:20,450 --> 00:24:23,120 whatever they're going to have. The majority of their vehicle 397 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,060 offerings are all going to be electric, right? So I just want 398 00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:28,400 to get your perspective on that. Since you mentioned the data 399 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,560 standpoint, what the future of the automotive industry looks 400 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:30,830 like, 401 00:24:30,860 --> 00:24:33,290 John Sotello: Absolutely so for Cloyes, more More to come on 402 00:24:33,290 --> 00:24:35,150 that one, I think that's something that's actively 403 00:24:35,180 --> 00:24:38,540 underway in terms of, you know, how the organization handles 404 00:24:38,540 --> 00:24:41,180 some of those different parts and the evolution that, you 405 00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:43,550 know, I think the most important thing to look at is, when you 406 00:24:43,550 --> 00:24:46,460 look at ice or internal combustible engines, they've got 407 00:24:46,460 --> 00:24:50,540 a long way to go. We can flip the switch and say, Hey, Ev, 408 00:24:50,540 --> 00:24:55,220 mandate, 2030, you know, state a that's great. But, you know, 409 00:24:55,220 --> 00:24:58,520 we're still selling ice up until that point. And the runway, I 410 00:24:58,520 --> 00:24:59,750 think, for you. 411 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000 Evolution for what's coming. You're going to see still a 412 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,700 combination of reducing your traditional v8 motors down to 413 00:25:05,700 --> 00:25:08,490 your v6 with the Turbo, which is good for us, right in terms of 414 00:25:08,490 --> 00:25:12,750 turbo, but EV, full EV, there's still components that kind of 415 00:25:12,780 --> 00:25:15,810 are complementary to what we do in the background. But I'm 416 00:25:15,810 --> 00:25:18,090 really anxious to see what happens with hybrid. If you guys 417 00:25:18,090 --> 00:25:20,790 look back to what you know, Toyota took on a lot of heat 418 00:25:21,060 --> 00:25:23,850 years ago because they wouldn't put a full blown EV strategy 419 00:25:23,850 --> 00:25:26,250 out. They postured a little bit and said, Hey, let's see what 420 00:25:26,250 --> 00:25:30,690 happens. And their gamble paid off, because hybrid is one of 421 00:25:30,690 --> 00:25:33,060 the better ones out there right now. Don't get me wrong, what 422 00:25:33,060 --> 00:25:37,170 Tesla does and what BYD is doing great strides, but I think 423 00:25:37,170 --> 00:25:42,090 hybrid strikes that nice balance between what is a full EV and 424 00:25:42,090 --> 00:25:45,660 that whole I'm going to run out of charge mentality versus, I 425 00:25:45,660 --> 00:25:49,320 want to go full bore, you know, gas. Give me my super unleaded. 426 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,050 Let me see how fast this thing can go. It's going to be right 427 00:25:52,050 --> 00:25:54,330 down the middle. And, you know, for me personally, not not 428 00:25:54,330 --> 00:25:57,090 associating with anything business wise, but I think 429 00:25:57,090 --> 00:25:59,370 there's going to be a right down the middle approach. And you 430 00:25:59,370 --> 00:26:01,770 can, you can read about. It's nothing that I'm going to say 431 00:26:01,770 --> 00:26:04,920 that's not already out there. Most people, if we're going to 432 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,830 go Eevee, will always have an ice vehicle in their driveway. 433 00:26:08,340 --> 00:26:10,380 It's like a comfort level, right? What do they call it 434 00:26:10,380 --> 00:26:13,380 range anxiety, in terms of making sure, you know, I can go 435 00:26:13,380 --> 00:26:17,820 on a road trip from, you know, Plano, Texas to Gulf Shores 436 00:26:17,820 --> 00:26:21,930 Alabama, of all places. And if I take my Ice Vehicle, I got two 437 00:26:21,930 --> 00:26:25,110 stops, but if I took a full blown EV, I'm probably talking 438 00:26:25,110 --> 00:26:26,970 four or five. So I think it's going to be somewhere in 439 00:26:26,970 --> 00:26:28,380 between, is my guess. 440 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,510 Keith Hawkey: I just picked up on what ice meant, internal 441 00:26:32,510 --> 00:26:35,960 combustion engine. Okay, gotcha. Okay. I was like, Ice Vehicle, 442 00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:38,960 Ice Vehicle. I haven't heard of an Ice Vehicle yet by now. 443 00:26:38,990 --> 00:26:40,970 John Sotello: Well, now, now I'll throw another one. Vio, 444 00:26:41,540 --> 00:26:43,070 Keith Hawkey: vio, I don't know 445 00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:45,590 John Sotello: vehicle and operation, so you'll hear it 446 00:26:45,590 --> 00:26:47,630 like, hey, what's the average age of a vio vehicle and 447 00:26:47,630 --> 00:26:50,930 operation? It's about 12.5 years. I think is the last 448 00:26:50,930 --> 00:26:53,450 metrics I saw on that. So it identifies what the what the 449 00:26:53,450 --> 00:26:54,770 existing car park looks like. 450 00:26:54,830 --> 00:26:56,330 Keith Hawkey: Ah, okay, I see. 451 00:26:56,390 --> 00:26:59,180 John Sotello: And your car park will vary by country too, as you 452 00:26:59,180 --> 00:27:01,910 go across, right? So our car park here is going to look a lot 453 00:27:01,910 --> 00:27:03,200 different than what say in France, 454 00:27:03,230 --> 00:27:07,010 Keith Hawkey: speaking of other initialisms, VIN numbers, yes, 455 00:27:07,070 --> 00:27:12,530 you've managed to find time and turn a pet project, hopefully 456 00:27:12,530 --> 00:27:17,240 into into a reality here, and this is a great example to all 457 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,170 of our listeners and all the IT leaders Listening of those pet 458 00:27:21,170 --> 00:27:23,690 projects that you have that you think could work with the 459 00:27:23,690 --> 00:27:25,670 organization, but you're too caught up in the weeds, you're 460 00:27:25,670 --> 00:27:30,290 too dug down and then trick the trenches. John has a success 461 00:27:30,290 --> 00:27:35,810 story here. Have to do with the data around v i n numbers. V i n 462 00:27:35,810 --> 00:27:38,120 is vehicle identification number, I'm pretty sure, right? 463 00:27:38,150 --> 00:27:38,840 John Sotello: Yep, you got it. 464 00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:41,180 Keith Hawkey: They get that one correct. Okay, share a little 465 00:27:41,180 --> 00:27:43,490 bit about your your VIN number project. 466 00:27:43,490 --> 00:27:46,550 John Sotello: Yeah. So when last year, we hired a new SVP of 467 00:27:46,580 --> 00:27:49,190 marketing and product, right? And he and I got on this data 468 00:27:49,190 --> 00:27:51,470 conversation one day, I'm like, Oh, great. This is fantastic. 469 00:27:51,470 --> 00:27:55,130 Let's go and I still have the original video I shot to him. 470 00:27:55,130 --> 00:27:58,850 And it was like, hey, if we take a VIN from our website, here's 471 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,310 the possibilities endless. So if you talk about a VIN for a 472 00:28:01,310 --> 00:28:04,010 second to everyone else, it's like, a cool it's like, you 473 00:28:04,010 --> 00:28:06,740 know, 18 characters, whatever, but it tells and if you go back 474 00:28:06,740 --> 00:28:09,530 to the people that car chase like old vehicles and stuff like 475 00:28:09,530 --> 00:28:13,160 that, and they're like, Hey, that's a blue car VA motor like 476 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,500 it used to tell those stories a lot better, probably, than what 477 00:28:15,500 --> 00:28:18,260 they do today. But VINs have evolved so much. And I think 478 00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:20,420 this comes from me being in collision too long and paying 479 00:28:20,420 --> 00:28:22,640 way too much. As we move from collision to mechanical, they 480 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,510 tell a story about what the vehicle is. But if you break it 481 00:28:26,510 --> 00:28:30,020 down, you get down into what's called your make model trim, 482 00:28:30,050 --> 00:28:32,690 which Keith, if you see it somewhere, it'll say Y, m, t, 483 00:28:32,750 --> 00:28:35,180 and it took me a bit to figure out, what does all that mean. 484 00:28:35,210 --> 00:28:37,880 But as we've evolved the vehicle, and we've gone from 485 00:28:37,910 --> 00:28:43,160 hey, here's a Toyota, just regular Toyota truck now to 486 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,450 here's a Toyota Tacoma Limited model with a TRD badge, all that 487 00:28:47,450 --> 00:28:49,970 stuff now rolls up into event, and it tells you, you know, the 488 00:28:49,970 --> 00:28:52,580 engine, what trim it had on it, you know, all these different 489 00:28:52,580 --> 00:28:54,890 safety components that may be on the vehicle, right? Well, then 490 00:28:54,890 --> 00:28:57,890 you take that and you can go to Toyota's website, or whoever, 491 00:28:57,890 --> 00:29:00,860 and you can figure out, hey, this is a 2025 Toyota Tacoma. 492 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,980 Here's your maintenance schedule, right? Oh, and by the 493 00:29:03,980 --> 00:29:07,250 way, you're at 25,000 miles. You really should have changed your 494 00:29:07,250 --> 00:29:10,550 cabin filter, right? So it's telling you all these things. 495 00:29:10,550 --> 00:29:14,360 Oh, and by the way, NHS says you have a recall. You need to go 496 00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,940 get that taken care of. So if you take this idea that, then 497 00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,510 you can figure out how to self serve, to support your your 498 00:29:20,510 --> 00:29:23,240 vehicle in the long term. But if you're, you know, if you're 499 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,820 looking at from a service provider, I'm coming in, I'm 500 00:29:25,820 --> 00:29:28,430 going to get my car worked on, whatever the case may be, it's 501 00:29:28,430 --> 00:29:31,070 the same thing. Hey, you're at 50,000 you know, when you get 502 00:29:31,070 --> 00:29:33,770 your oil change and the person comes up, hey, it's time for the 503 00:29:33,770 --> 00:29:37,250 $60 air filter. You could have already answered that question 504 00:29:37,250 --> 00:29:40,010 and stopped off and saved half the money. But I think that 505 00:29:40,010 --> 00:29:43,940 power, that I've been and how you can bring it in and help 506 00:29:43,940 --> 00:29:47,990 complement, call it, add on feature sets, and helping make 507 00:29:47,990 --> 00:29:50,600 the consumer make better decisions about what they do 508 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,900 with their car is for the better. And if you look at it in 509 00:29:53,900 --> 00:29:57,230 terms of like the fleets and things like that, we're talking 510 00:29:57,230 --> 00:29:59,120 money when you're paying attention to your maintenance 511 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:00,020 schedules and not. 512 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,460 Just the one that says on your top left your windshield, it's 513 00:30:02,460 --> 00:30:05,220 time to change your oil, but we still have to grease bearings. 514 00:30:05,250 --> 00:30:08,100 We still have to change spark plugs. You still have to change 515 00:30:08,100 --> 00:30:12,660 things in an EV like the list is limited, just sometimes we don't 516 00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:15,150 always remember that the owner's manual is sitting on the right 517 00:30:15,150 --> 00:30:18,270 side of your glove box, and you don't think about it. And 518 00:30:18,540 --> 00:30:21,180 wouldn't it be nice if it was just a push notification to your 519 00:30:21,180 --> 00:30:25,110 phone says, Hey, your car says it needs to go to discount tire, 520 00:30:25,140 --> 00:30:29,010 because that really not cool thing called TPMS just said you 521 00:30:29,010 --> 00:30:30,930 need to go to, you know, Discount Tire because you're, 522 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,930 you know, five pounds under pressure. So I think the VIN 523 00:30:33,930 --> 00:30:36,900 piece outside of just what you know, we did internally in in 524 00:30:36,900 --> 00:30:40,020 talks of, how can we take you to help structure, into getting 525 00:30:40,020 --> 00:30:44,040 deeper into providing mechanical feedback, but taking outside of 526 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,310 that and just going to the everyday consumer is incredibly, 527 00:30:47,310 --> 00:30:48,750 or could be incredibly powerful. 528 00:30:48,980 --> 00:30:51,830 Michael Coloma: So John, you had mentioned that your background 529 00:30:51,860 --> 00:30:55,010 is being non traditional, with the in the sense of having a 530 00:30:55,010 --> 00:30:58,610 sales background, right? And as I mentioned earlier on when we 531 00:30:58,610 --> 00:31:01,670 were discussing this, is it has normally always been a cost 532 00:31:01,670 --> 00:31:04,940 center, 100% for most organizations, where they just 533 00:31:04,940 --> 00:31:09,020 look at it as you're just a line item that literally just takes 534 00:31:09,020 --> 00:31:14,450 away from our net profits. And so, can you share an example of 535 00:31:14,510 --> 00:31:17,990 something in your either your current role or in a previous 536 00:31:17,990 --> 00:31:22,190 role, where you have been in a position of leadership, made a 537 00:31:22,190 --> 00:31:26,840 recommendation for a solution or a product that has positively 538 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,020 impacted the rest of the organization from a revenue 539 00:31:30,020 --> 00:31:34,430 standpoint and really helped to change the way that it leaders 540 00:31:34,430 --> 00:31:38,630 are viewed in the overall portion of the organization to 541 00:31:38,630 --> 00:31:42,410 more of a an assistant or support model of generating 542 00:31:42,410 --> 00:31:43,880 revenue for a company. 543 00:31:44,150 --> 00:31:47,210 John Sotello: I'll give you a couple one as of late. Look, 544 00:31:47,210 --> 00:31:49,850 there's nothing cool. And I tell this internally, there's nothing 545 00:31:49,850 --> 00:31:52,970 cool, fancy or game changing about EDI, which is a 546 00:31:52,970 --> 00:31:55,820 transmission of data from customer into a partner, right? 547 00:31:55,940 --> 00:31:59,090 And that is something that drives every facet of our 548 00:31:59,090 --> 00:32:01,820 business. And so we kicked off an EDI project probably about 549 00:32:01,820 --> 00:32:04,040 February, just kicking the tires around to see what we could do 550 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,480 with it. We've now morphed it into something where we update 551 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,510 the business on it every week, where we're at what we're doing 552 00:32:11,510 --> 00:32:14,660 with it. How we're going to move from, you know, a manual system 553 00:32:14,660 --> 00:32:17,270 to more of an automation system for certain parts of it. How can 554 00:32:17,270 --> 00:32:20,270 we board customers faster? Because the faster you can board 555 00:32:20,270 --> 00:32:22,520 your customers, the faster they're placing orders, right? 556 00:32:22,940 --> 00:32:26,060 So your ROI hits up quicker, and then, honestly, it's just 557 00:32:26,060 --> 00:32:28,850 providing information and feedback as you go along, in 558 00:32:28,850 --> 00:32:31,610 terms of, Hey, we gotta, we gotta reach out from, you know, 559 00:32:31,610 --> 00:32:34,280 five customers. Which one of these do you want to prioritize? 560 00:32:34,700 --> 00:32:37,670 And it's having that, that conversation back and forth with 561 00:32:37,670 --> 00:32:41,090 your sales and operations leaders that really helps one 562 00:32:41,150 --> 00:32:43,910 you as an IT person to better learn the business and what's 563 00:32:43,910 --> 00:32:47,450 coming in there. Here's your pipelines and forecasts and see 564 00:32:47,450 --> 00:32:50,090 what's coming to help drive revenue in the company. But also 565 00:32:50,090 --> 00:32:53,420 your kind of information sharing with the other side too. We 566 00:32:53,420 --> 00:32:56,120 historically, kind of get viewed as a black box, right? Partially 567 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,520 because we use buzzwords and three letter words like, you 568 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,210 know, sand and RAM. But, you know, giving folks a little bit 569 00:33:02,210 --> 00:33:05,810 of a non it feedback of, hey, we need contact information with 570 00:33:05,810 --> 00:33:09,320 demographics, et cetera. This is why, because it drives into a 571 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,620 four week timeline on our side. And here's where you slot in. I 572 00:33:12,620 --> 00:33:16,040 think giving that feedback without being we chatted 573 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:19,190 earlier, the perception of just opening a ticket goes a long 574 00:33:19,190 --> 00:33:22,580 ways right. And in a previous life, we were built on inbound 575 00:33:22,580 --> 00:33:26,720 volume, so the more vehicles we service, the more capacity we 576 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,570 had to have. On the other side, the challenge is the first two 577 00:33:29,570 --> 00:33:31,850 or three times when people are like, hey, we need you to go 578 00:33:31,850 --> 00:33:35,930 increase capacity, and then you show up with a bill of $250,000 579 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,360 and you get the shock and awe. No one talks to you for about a 580 00:33:38,420 --> 00:33:40,900 week. That's a thing, by the way, and until you can create 581 00:33:40,900 --> 00:33:44,260 that value engine that says, hey, we've done some analysis. 582 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:48,460 And for every, you know, 100 vehicles you add, here's what we 583 00:33:48,460 --> 00:33:52,720 need to do to keep up with you and finding ways to, kind of, I 584 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,840 say, Insert, but insert your way into conversations when we're 585 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:59,680 about to go talk to, you know, big customers, and not just 586 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,460 going into, oh, we just don't have enough capacity. We can't 587 00:34:02,460 --> 00:34:05,580 do that. We can't we as IT folks can't just take that approach 588 00:34:05,580 --> 00:34:08,040 anymore. We have to be able to come back with factual numbers 589 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:11,640 that resonate with people. Hey, we've got 1000 vehicles a month 590 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,660 coming inbound. Great. What's the mix of the car park? Is it 591 00:34:15,660 --> 00:34:18,840 going to be domestic? Is it going to be European, like 592 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,920 individually? Which OEM is it going to be? Because it matters 593 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,480 downstream to here. And when people start taking in that 594 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,840 volume and really understanding what it means to get to the 595 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,560 capacity and the pieces and parts to it, you don't become 596 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,400 just a cost center anymore. You become a key to go score the 597 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,900 business, because as soon as someone scores that business, 598 00:34:40,900 --> 00:34:44,320 regardless, same with EDI and some of the other things, you 599 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,080 become the long pole because we're longer in the supply 600 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:50,860 chain. In terms of, I need to go buy capacity. And Michael, you 601 00:34:50,860 --> 00:34:53,140 know, is better than me. It could take 30 days. It could 602 00:34:53,140 --> 00:34:56,260 take 60 days, depending on what you're sourcing from and where 603 00:34:56,260 --> 00:34:59,260 you're sourcing from. If people aren't aware of that before they 604 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,089 Cycle. We become the, I hate to say it roadblock, but we become 605 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:18,050 Keith Hawkey: Yeah, words of the wise. John Sotello, it has been 606 00:34:59,260 --> 00:34:59,920 go start a sale. 607 00:35:02,138 --> 00:35:05,129 the person that helped, didn't make the sale, right? It's all 608 00:35:05,178 --> 00:35:07,532 very intricate and interconnected, but I'll tell 609 00:35:07,581 --> 00:35:10,376 you, you've got, from my perspective, and it's, it's been 610 00:35:10,425 --> 00:35:13,171 a hard road. I'll speak for myself, too. It has not, not 611 00:35:13,220 --> 00:35:16,212 been easy. Hence the and here and here and great, but you got 612 00:35:16,261 --> 00:35:19,399 to be willing to take your lump sometimes. And you know, I think 613 00:35:19,448 --> 00:35:22,390 I mentioned this to a friend of mine, sometimes you gotta be 614 00:35:22,439 --> 00:35:25,627 willing and okay, just to figure out that today you're just gonna 615 00:35:25,676 --> 00:35:28,373 clean the bathroom. And I mean that as a as a kind of a 616 00:35:28,340 --> 00:35:53,900 a pleasure having you on the IT Matters podcast. You know, your 617 00:35:28,422 --> 00:35:31,364 descriptor of you may just be working on setting up accounts 618 00:35:31,413 --> 00:35:34,404 today, because that's what needs to be done. And that's okay. 619 00:35:34,453 --> 00:35:37,543 You're still adding some type of value, but you've almost still 620 00:35:37,592 --> 00:35:40,730 gotta earn that keep right? It's like in sales, you can, you can 621 00:35:40,779 --> 00:35:43,476 go out and fish for new customers all day long, but you 622 00:35:43,525 --> 00:35:46,370 still got to maintain your internal base at the same time. 623 00:35:53,900 --> 00:35:58,040 last message really stuck out to me. I typically ask kind of a 624 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:02,780 parting statement or parting message to deliver, like, 625 00:36:02,780 --> 00:36:07,880 imagine you were delivering the keynote at the 2025 Ford CIO 626 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,840 Summit. And one thing that really stuck out is, like you 627 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,150 said, you know, some days you just have to clean the bathroom, 628 00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:18,440 simple things, yep. And metaphorically in the CIOs role, 629 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,250 I think that's that's incredibly applicable and a lot of times 630 00:36:22,250 --> 00:36:26,210 overlooked with the rule, some days it's not fun, but you take 631 00:36:26,210 --> 00:36:28,940 the days that are not as fun for that day that you get a big win, 632 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,140 and remember the big wins. It takes a lot of small wins to get 633 00:36:33,140 --> 00:36:36,530 to a big win, and unfortunately, it doesn't take a whole lot to 634 00:36:36,530 --> 00:36:40,160 lose that big win too. So we've got to be mindful as we maintain 635 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,760 the easy things, right? And keep the hygiene going. John, how can 636 00:36:43,790 --> 00:36:44,900 our listeners get a hold of you? 637 00:36:44,990 --> 00:36:46,400 John Sotello: I'm on LinkedIn. Hit me up. On LinkedIn. I'm 638 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:48,800 pretty active out there. I've kind of avoided most other 639 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,380 social media channels at this point. I don't know, I guess. I 640 00:36:51,380 --> 00:36:53,900 guess that whole lot concept of getting too old for Facebook is 641 00:36:53,900 --> 00:36:56,600 coming along, but I'm always on LinkedIn. Hit me up. I'm glad to 642 00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,260 communicate I hit me on instant messenger within there, happy to 643 00:37:00,260 --> 00:37:03,740 provide any feedback. Do a quick call, whatever it takes. Thank 644 00:37:03,740 --> 00:37:04,220 you so much. 645 00:37:04,220 --> 00:37:08,750 Keith Hawkey: We'll include your LinkedIn profile account in the 646 00:37:08,750 --> 00:37:12,290 show notes. And again, thanks for joining the podcast. It's 647 00:37:12,290 --> 00:37:15,020 been incredibly insightful. Thank you, Michael, for CO 648 00:37:15,020 --> 00:37:17,720 hosting, and we will catch you next time. 649 00:37:17,810 --> 00:37:18,770 John Sotello: Guys appreciate it. 650 00:37:18,890 --> 00:37:19,760 Michael Coloma: Thank you, John, 651 00:37:20,990 --> 00:37:22,700 Aaron Bock: thank you for listening, and we appreciate you 652 00:37:22,700 --> 00:37:26,030 tuning into the IT Matters podcast for support assessing 653 00:37:26,030 --> 00:37:29,090 your technology needs, book a call with one of our technology 654 00:37:29,090 --> 00:37:32,510 advisors at opkalla.com 655 00:37:34,290 --> 00:37:36,930 if you found this episode helpful, please share the 656 00:37:36,930 --> 00:37:39,870 podcast with someone who would get value from it and leave us a 657 00:37:39,870 --> 00:37:43,950 review on Apple podcasts or on Spotify. Thank you for listening 658 00:37:43,950 --> 00:37:45,150 and have a great day.