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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: Op 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, cyber security
industry focused IT solutions,
strategy and more. Now let's get
into today's discussion on what
matters in it,
Keith Hawkey: and welcome back
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 the
challenges facing the modern IT
department. My name is Keith
Hawkey, technology advisor at
Opkalla, and today we are joined
by Shane Creech, who is
currently the Vice President of
Information Technology at OB
hospitalist group, where he
leads enterprise technology
strategy across clinical
operations, infrastructure, data
security and innovation. Shane
has guided organizations through
cloud first transformations,
major interoperability shifts
and even national scale cyber
events. What makes Shane's
perspective especially valuable
is that he's done this work
across nearly every IT
leadership seat, CIO, VP of IT
infrastructure, cloud leader
spanning health care, higher
education. He's led service desk
in sourcing and built enterprise
analytics teams from scratch,
constantly bridging the gap
between technology and the
business it serves. Today, we'll
talk about what it actually
takes to lead it in high stakes
environments, how technology
leaders should think about cloud
AI and resilience right now, and
what Shane has learned when the
pressure is real and the lights
have to stay on. Shane, welcome
to the podcast.
Shane Creech: Thank you, Keith.
It's fantastic introduction. It
certainly sounds possibly more
awesome than maybe reality is.
But thank you so much for having
me.
Keith Hawkey: It's definitely a
pleasure. But before we get into
the meat and potatoes of things,
we have a little game that we
typically play. It's a little
more light hearted. Have you
ever played true truths and a
lie?
Shane Creech: Personally,
probably not. But have I been in
social settings where we have
played absolutely well?
Keith Hawkey: This is a two
truths and a lie based on the
most recent ces event, computer,
consumer electronics, not the S
stands for, you know, the big
event they have where there's a
bunch of innovative consumer
Toys and electronics. So I'll
list three different possible
electronics that were there, and
I'll see if you can guess the
one that is completely
fabricated,
Shane Creech: fantastic. All
right,
Keith Hawkey: all right. So
first is in emotion sensing car
horn that adjust adjust honk,
volume and tone based on whether
you're angry, passive,
aggressive or just exhausted.
Impressive. That is number one
second a baby panda robot named
on on a cuddly robot, pet
designed to respond to touch and
provide companionship for older
adults. Blending cuteness with
assistive tech, and number three
is a Lego smart play brick, a
real two by four Lego brick with
sensors, lights and sounds,
interactivity, bringing physical
play into the smart era. So
we've got a motion sensing car
horn, a baby robot that consoles
and a panda robot that assists
the elderly, and a Lego play
smart brick.
Shane Creech: Those are good, so
I'm gonna go for the one that
seems least plausible, at least
to me, because I don't see the
practical. Goodness for
humanity, I'll go for the motion
sensing car horn,
Keith Hawkey: as much as I would
love for that to be true. That
was a completely fabricated
device that I made up. However,
wouldn't it be fun to be on the
road and you hear the different
car horns based on the actual
emotional deposition of each
driver,
Shane Creech: yeah, yeah. I This
will probably give away a bit,
at least in the era I grew up.
But they used to have in in
older cars, you could have like
a multi tone horn, or a horn
that would play like a like MIDI
music style of tone. So you
could essentially select, you
know, one or three different
type of honk types. So, I mean,
the technology has actually been
there for probably quite a quite
a time.
Keith Hawkey: Yeah, speaking of
quite a time, you've spent quite
a time in IT and technology.
Shane, how did you begin this
career? What were the early
beginnings? How did you become a
practitioner in the space? Oh,
so
Shane Creech: probably an
interesting story of coming into
it. And, you know, blends into,
you know, as you said, now I'm
in healthcare. It for most of my
adult life now, but when I was
coming up through high school, I
really it wasn't much of a thing
people invested in. You know,
there wasn't a lot of technology
really integrated within
business. You know, the old the
old times, when it started off
as, you know, you'd probably
find it some executive spaces,
you know, people maybe did some
financial trading or watched,
you know, financial markets, you
know, did some basic, we'll call
computer asset tracking stuff
and ordering and and things like
that. So, you know, much to a
lot of people's, I think
surprise when they find out
about my career is, I thought I
was going to be a medical
laboratory technician. That's,
you know, I was 100% convinced
that that was my future. You
know, having an engineering
background and just an innate
curiosity in that space that
really seemed like it was a
great fit. I found out real
early I'm not one for blood, so
Medical Laboratory Technician
wasn't really a great fit for my
future. But what, what I did see
in that space was there was a
whole lot of technology back
stuff, and just, I think, in
leading up to that, really got
involved in and working with
people in high school doing
bulletin board systems and early
communication systems, and
really cultivated a community
of, you know, just learning and
and early computer science stuff
that, to me, was like a whole
brand new world of fascination
and excitement that also kind
of, I think, sparked that
engineering mindset. And, you
know, as I tend to tell people,
the rest is history, and I just
kind of jumped full force into
it. And there really wasn't a
technology that, you know, I was
exposed to, or that would come
up, that, you know, I wasn't
fascinated by. It. Just
couldn't, you know, help myself
to learn more.
Keith Hawkey: Yeah, I mean,
that's, that's a lot of the IT.
Leaders that we have on actually
had some varied beginnings that
stumbled into it. You know, it's
funny enough. We actually have a
lot of people on that came from
a military background, and
that's and they dealt with
military technology, and that's
how they move themselves into
the private enterprise of it.
And it is interesting how a lot
of paths lead this direction,
considering of how important it
is to organizations to have
competent people. They keep the
lights on, really, and they're
the backbone to their
organizations. You've spent some
time in healthcare over the last
few years. What is? What is
something that about being an IT
leader in healthcare that people
outside of the role don't almost
never understand?
Shane Creech: Yeah, that's a
great question. And kind of, as
you dissect that and think about
it, you know, I think something
that comes to mind really is,
you know, it's, it's my history
within the role, because it's,
it's greatly changed over the
years. So how I probably would
have answered that, you know, a
decade or two ago is vastly
different than how I'd answer it
today, but probably in the most
common way I'd say, you know,
most people probably think
healthcare, it is, you know, the
same as, you know, whatever they
think it is anywhere else. And
you know, it's really about, you
know, data protection, keeping
the lights on. You know. System
uptime, right? That's probably,
I'd say for years, that's really
what it teams were measured
against. You know, you're a
successful team if you did keep
the lights on, and if the system
was always available for the
user to interact with the system
and do whatever, you know,
whatever thing that system
actually provided for the
organization in the healthcare
space. I think the thing that's
greatly different when you think
about that question is, you
know, you could have the system
there, it could be on, people
can interact with it. And
that's, that's actually like the
table stakes of the job. So
that's, that's not the
importance. That's certainly not
how you know, any of my past
employers in the last 10 years
have actually measured, you
know, success of any IT team
I've led. It's really about, you
know, today, being able to help
the users unlock the
functionality within the
technology so that it becomes a
tool that enables them to get,
you know, either more done meet,
you know, increasing demand and
capacity, get work done faster.
Perhaps, you know, it's, I
think, when I think about that
question, it's, that's probably
the the interesting piece,
because, if I was in
manufacturing, it it probably,
quite simply, is, you know, the
system just has to be up,
because if the system's up, then
we're, you know, we're
generating whatever out the back
end that that is counted as
success. But in health care,
that's, that's just vastly
different. And I think for
anybody that's not in health
care, just the depth and
complexity of a regulated
environment is probably
something you know would be,
yeah, you don't understand it,
probably, until you have to live
with it or live in it,
Keith Hawkey: yeah, yeah, that,
that makes a lot of sense. I
mean, you, you've probably
experienced what, what we would
call a bad day in, bad day on
the job and with your tenured
career, I'm curious, of like,
what, what is a How does a bad
day look today compared to what
it did 510, years ago? And any,
any war stories that that nit
leader that maybe hasn't gone
down your path, but they can
learn from that resonates with
you?
Shane Creech: Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, I just kind of
hit, I think, the front end of
that question, and think about
again, 10 or 15 years ago, a bad
day might have been, geez, there
was a, you know, a system outage
that lasted a day, maybe three
days, you know, maybe, in real
bad case, maybe it lasted for a
week, you know, and that was,
that was your bad day, or or set
of bad days together, not that
that wouldn't be catastrophic
today, because it certainly
would. It wouldn't make for a
great day, but I think, to a
greater degree, a bad day, and
in modern times really isn't so
much again about keeping, you
know, keeping the lights on
simply, it's, you know, a bad
day is really defined by, did I
bring the right, you know,
technologies forward to the
business that actually solved
the problem, you know, that
they're trying to solve. And
probably even more importantly
than that is, you know, I could
probably solve any business
problem with a dozen
technologies, but some
technologies, frankly, require
the business to change, you
know, work dynamics or workflows
in order for them to unlock the
value of the technology. So, you
know, I'd probably quantify, you
know, today's bad day would be
if I didn't put in the hard
work, I think, to understand
what the business is trying to
accomplish. And, you know, led
them down a bad path, or a bad
investment in technology, that's
a bad day in how I would look at
it today, just simply from the
impact perspective of it's it
may be a bad day today, but I'm
going to continue to live with
the result of that bad day for,
you know, maybe the next five
years, if it was a sizable
investment, they're not going to
reinvest. We're gonna have to
figure out, or try to figure
out, how to make it work. So I
think that's, you know, it's a
complexity problem, and that's,
that's how I would think about
the bad day today, yesterday. It
was just, you know, it was
today. Was it a good day today?
Did the system stay up today and
today? It's the, you know, the
vast difference is, well, did I
actually understand what you
needed? Because if I didn't it,
it's more than a bad day today.
It's a bad day for the next five
years, 36
Keith Hawkey: months of bad
days, or 60 months of bad days.
Yes, and reminders. Reminders of
a previous time, reminders of an
evaluation,
Shane Creech: yeah, and, you
know, and to bring that out into
practical sense, into the second
part of your question, you know,
I, I could probably go back as
early as just talking with
different folks about, you know,
cloud ambitions, you know, just
to kind of get into the hype
cycle, you know, Cloud has kind
of started, I think, to come off
the backside. Most people, you
know, see SAS Infrastructure as
a Service is just normal courses
of doing business. But back in
the early days when that began,
you know, most businesses kind
of like aI today, you know,
boards got hit to executive
teams of, hey, I think this is a
great way to save money on this.
It spend, you know, let's, let's
go to the cloud. Everybody's
doing it, right? So a lot of
people ran full force into,
let's do the cloud, cloud
everything. And, you know, I
would consistently talk to folks
that, you know, were kind of in
the beginning, mid part of their
journey. Maybe they had had some
starts and stops, but they were
starting to kind of feel the bad
day scenario, right? Because
they're like, I'm not seeing
that. This is going to save
money. This is what they wanted
me to do. Was to do this because
they were going to save money.
But I'm not realizing savings.
So, you know, when I think about
it in a practical sense, of, you
know, turning that into, you
know, a real, tangible story.
That was one where I, you know,
I'd say, if you didn't, if you
didn't understand how the
technology is used, how you
would apply it, you know, to the
problem, you know, save money,
you could end up with some
really unintended results. And,
you know, the big thing in the
cloud space that become, I
think, interesting, you know,
hindsight 2020, was really that
cost savings didn't materialize
because, you know, again, the
pace of the business continued.
It did allow IT groups to
service the business in a much
quicker manner. But what really
happened in in respect to that
is the business became Ultra
consumers. So instead of the old
pace that was kind of hampered
by the traditional purchasing
process, and, you know, buying
hardware, racking and stacking
hardware, getting it ready to
go, putting an application on
it. I mean, all that used to
take months. So it would, you
know, in essence, create a
little bit of an artificial
roadblock for the business going
extremely fast or spending money
really quickly. The cloud era,
you know, took that from months
to literally hours, sometimes
just days. So then the pace that
you know, the organization could
spend money just Quicken. So in
most organizations, really, that
realization was they intended to
save money, but what they didn't
do is really look at the process
around implementing the
technology and what that caused,
and that's how most people ended
up actually burning through what
they thought was a cost savings,
just simply by just consuming
more.
Keith Hawkey: You know, thus is
the potential graveyard for so
many IT leaders today that it's,
it's one of those roles that
you're, you're into, you're
intricately tied to the
technology the business operates
on. You're in charge of
understanding brand new
revelations and technology
revolutions. Cloud was one of
those revolutions at the time.
You know, you're not very well
equipped to have all of the
insight into how this, how this
works, especially five years
ago, especially seven years ago.
So there's a lot of IT leaders
that went by the wayside that,
you know, they're blamed for
potential mistake. And they
went, you know, the the vendor
was, had all these ROI documents
and how they're going to save
this amount of money. And they
had, they made it sound so, so
nice. It just reminds me of,
because I exist in the partner
space. My day job of trying to,
trying to cut through some of
the salesmanship that happens
because, because I've seen many
it, leaders kind of live and die
by these, these poor decisions
that get locked in long term
contracts, and like you said,
it's a spigot that sometimes
only goes one way with Cloud
spend. I see this paradigm
reinventing itself within the
generative AI space today. I
mean, it's going to be the exact
same cycle. It's even more
complicated than shifting your
infrastructure to basically just
another data center that has a
different cost model. It's it's
unproven. I see it constantly.
Actually, I think most
organizations are still fairly
tepid around making big
investments. They. Really want
to start extremely small, so at
least that's helpful, but it's,
it's, it's going to be another
one of those cycles where
there's going to be a lot of IT
leaders, either they're made or
unmade, within this hype cycle
of AI,
Shane Creech: yeah, for sure.
Yeah. I think that's probably
been the majority of my
conversations the last two
years, specifically, again, just
coming from the cloud space and
watching that paradigm happen.
And I'd say there's some
important learnings to not end
up in. You know, I used to be an
IT leader category, and that's
and that's really, I think, if
you shift out of, you know, I
just the pressure cauldron, you
know, the board says, I need
this thing that's, that's
fantastic. But, you know, you
work in the partner space, and
you know this as well as anyone,
it's like, well, let's, let's
dive into that. So you want it.
Let's define what the want
actually is. What are you trying
to achieve? You want? Ai, but
what's the business value
proposition that's going to be
created here? And then, you
know, again, I think, start to
dissect that, come to that
mutual understanding of, okay,
so this is what we're working
towards, is the value
proposition we're going to try
to drive, from a business value
proposition perspective, not,
you know, it up time or, you
know, something that doesn't
really matter, but this is the
thing we're going to chase, you
know, to use it in the cloud
space. Let's say it was cost
savings, because there were
people that did save money in
cloud. And here's how they did
it. Because I, you know, I
helped people do it. I'm sure,
in the space, you know, if you
were in the partner space at
that time, you You probably also
witnessed people did save money.
And the way they did it is,
okay, we're gonna save money.
That's, that's kind of the
business value proposition. And
then, you know, you break down
like a partner does is, let's
understand everything that
drives cost. So then you, you
know, you go through the pain of
documenting all of that stuff
that drives the cost in the
cloud space. And you know, you
you come up with a fairly
extensive list, and a lot of
that stuff is just, you know,
it's process, it's procedural.
Of course, there's technology,
there's people, there's all of
that kind of stuff. And then,
you know, and then you actually
make the moves to start enacting
change, and a lot of it has
nothing to do with technology
change, for as cool as it
sounds, a lot of its process and
people. So you make those
process and people changes, and
then, yeah, then you make the
small adjustments. As you see
the value prop either come to
life, you know, either I'm
spending a little bit more, I'm
spending a little bit less. The
people that didn't end up
spending more ended up adopting
things like, I have a test
environment that I only turn on
because I test one time a year.
So, you know, in my old IT
environment that was a piece
infrastructure, I just left it
on. In the cloud environment, I
could turn it off and not pay
for it. So the operational
paradigm shift was turn it off
and then money savings happens.
So, you know that that's just,
that's just a real simple
example. I think, you know, when
you apply it to the cloud space,
I see the same thing really
happening in the AI space today.
You know, really comes into it's
like, well, AI can do a lot of
things. What are we want it to
do? And what? What I've commonly
told people today, because I've
heard, I've heard some people
say, well, there's, there's this
notion that we can, you know,
save money with people. You
know, we can, we can get rid of
people, or somehow supplant
people with AI technology. And
you know what? I think the early
goers that have kind of pushed
hard into that space have found
out really quickly, just like
early cloud adopters, is you
can, but it's, it's not really
the core application or the
benefit of applying that
particular piece of technology.
It's really, you know, it's more
about speed. It's amplification
of existing skill sets, you
know, it's, it's everything,
really, but replacing people. So
if you're a growing
organization, and your growth
curve has been to put more
people at growth, yeah, you can
apply AI in the in the people
savings aspect, more than
likely, you know, to automate
process and people type of
tasks, and then you can kind of
bend the curve. You're going to
spend a portion of that savings
in, obviously, the technology to
make that amplification, but you
should probably realize in that
savings over, you know, salary
benefits, for instance. So I,
you know, when I when I think
about what's going to separate
the. People that are, you know,
tomorrow's, you know, leaders
that are going to be cheered in
the hallways for helping an
organization really take this
maddening, you know, AI drum
beat that's probably coming out
of the boardroom in the
executive team conference room.
It's really going to be those
people that can lean in,
understand and deconstruct,
really, what's the business, you
know, business value proposition
we're trying to drive and then
be that constant partner. So you
can't take the order, you know,
in the classic sense, like we
used to 20 years ago, go in the
back room, work for months, and
then generate the thing and go,
ta, da, because the business
probably has gone to made five
or six iterations in that time
period that you've been in the
back room. So everything has to
be done in the front room, you
know, constantly iterating, you
know, kind of getting in that
fast Dev, you know, hyper
improvement mindset, and
constantly making small
iterations. And I think the
folks that do that and navigate
it more from a partner mindset
are going to be highly
successful. Yeah.
Keith Hawkey: I mean, you
interact with, with the
boardroom, with, with the
leadership committee that is in
charge of the business direction
quite often. What are you
hearing? What do you think the
disconnect is between what a
board of directors thinks AI
should do and what is feasible
in the near term, like, what,
what are some of these grand
ideas that maybe you've heard,
and how do you bring them down
to a consumable? You know, low
hanging fruit, you know, a
landing place without putting
the company too much at risk.
Like, do you have any experience
with with that paradigm?
Shane Creech: Yeah, yeah, this
is gonna, it's gonna sound
really dorky, Keith, what I'm
gonna say? It comes down to me,
it comes down to metrics that
matter. And here's how I'll
bring it to life. You know, I'll
talk about cloud because, you
know that may be more applicable
to some people in recent memory,
and also AI, but you know, in
the cloud space in the early
going, really, the metric that
people thought mattered was how
much of your, you know, IT
infrastructure portfolio or app
portfolio was in the cloud. The
higher the number, the better
that was. That was the false
metric. So that was the metric
most people who ended up
failing. That's the one they
chased. Yeah, all aspects, you
know, everything be damned. Get
everything into the cloud. You
know, the higher the metric, the
better. And it simply wasn't the
case. I think when you kind of
look at AI and it's really kind
of come up even internally to
our conversations real early on,
you know, we had a metric that
went to our board, and it was,
it was really just, you know,
kind of an inventory or account
of, you know, well, how many AI
things are you doing and, and
that was the metric, you know,
early on that mattered, because
if, if that number was, you
know, low, it was, well, you're
not doing Enough. If that number
was really high, it's like, oh,
well, you must be, you know, you
must be really forward thinking.
You must be out there doing
great things, you know, and and
what I, you know, what we've
shifted from in that space is,
you know, we've, we've kind of
pulled back. I have, like, a top
three to five opportunities, you
know, where we can apply AI to
help our organization, and
that's really what we track to.
It's like, what's, what's the
progress on those things? And
let's talk about what we've
learned. I mean, there have been
some things we thought we were
going to get business value out
of, you know, those things have
come true. There's been,
obviously some things that we
thought we were going to get
business value out of. And, you
know, real early on, it's like,
well, that's, it's, it's not
really taking hold. We're not
seeing it. So then, you know,
when I talk about those micro
corrections, you know, that's,
that's when you have honest
conversations and you say, Is
it, is it is it possible to
achieve this with this
particular technology? Are we
thinking about it correctly? Is
there a different way to
approach it that, you know, we
may be able to obtain this value
that we think we're chasing? So
I think, you know, when I, when
I kind of think about it
holistically, from that
perspective, it's, you know, it
comes down to, you know, it's
metrics. Are you measuring the
right thing and looking at it
from the right perspective to
actually know whether or not
you're moving things in the
right direction?
Keith Hawkey: Yeah, that's I
mean, if you were going Shane,
if you're going to tell a. A
younger IT leader who's maybe in
his or her first management or
director role, a trend that you
believe is going to matter
enormously in the next five
years, that most IT leaders are
currently underestimating. What
what trend? What advice would
you give that younger, IT
leader?
Shane Creech: What I would
probably say is it's easy to get
caught up in the hype, because
it's, it's, it's the thing that
in every one on one with, you
know, your direct report, or,
you know, if you get some
boardroom exposure, it'll be the
thing that they're talking
about. You know what? What I
tell people is, don't just,
don't just listen to what's
said, but dig into the context
of what's being talked about or
being asked about. You know,
relentlessly pursue that and
understand what it really is,
and then, you know, dig in and
find out then how to solve that
particular problem or or do
whatever that is. You know, we
operate today in a high growth
organization. So for us, you
know, regardless of what it is,
somebody may be asking me for on
the top side, you know, at the
end of the day, it's always,
what am I doing that enables the
organization to grow in a more
scalable fashion? You know, when
I started in the organization,
we were much smaller than what
we are today. We've been in our
very high growth curve. So for
us, it's been about, how do you
not just fashion the
organization to scale. But how
do you fashion the organization
to scale effectively? Yeah, so
Keith Hawkey: that's that's very
well said. We have a lot of
younger listeners that are
always looking to, you know,
pick the brain of those that
have traveled this path and have
been successful. So I'm sure
that sentiment will be well
received. Shane, we're starting
to come up on time here. Where
can our listeners find you, if
they have any questions, what is
a good way to reach out? Is
there a particular platform that
the best way to reach out to
Shane Creech,
Shane Creech: best way to find
Shane Creech, I have minimized
my digital footprint being in
this industry long enough for my
own sanity. Everybody in my
family will be thankful for that
at this point, but I am happily
and easily found on LinkedIn, so
please look me up Shane Creech
on LinkedIn, and you can connect
with me there, and always happy
to either share war stories or
insights on issues that you may
be having within your own
organization. Perfect.
Keith Hawkey: Yeah, we'll make
sure to include Shane's LinkedIn
profile link in the show notes,
and with that, we will catch you
on the next episode of the IT
Matters podcast. Thank you,
Shane, for taking the time to
spend with us today.
Shane Creech: Yeah, thanks for
having me, Keith, it was fun.
Aaron Bock: Thank you for
listening. We appreciate you
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podcast for support assessing
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