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>> Good evening.
Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of day one
of Snowflake Summit 22 live
from Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas.
Lisa Martin, here with Dave Vellante.
Dave, we have had an action-packed day one.
A lot of news coming out this morning.
We've talked to Snowflake folks.
We've talked to partners, we've talked to customers.
A lot going on today.
>> It's our light day.
Tomorrow it even gets more intense.
>> I know.
I'm a little scared. (Dave Vellante laughing)
We've got another partner of Snowflakes
onboard with us here.
Please welcome, let me get this, Sudhir Chaturvedi,
President and Executive Board Member at LTI.
How did I do?
>> Yeah, very well, actually.
(laughing)
>> Dave Vellante: Outstanding.
>> Welcome to the program.
Tell us a little bit about you
and then talk to the audience about LTI
and what you're doing with Snowflake.
>> Sure.
So, LTI is a global technology
consulting and services firm.
We had (indistinct) out of India.
We're part of a large conglomerate,
which is over 80 years old.
Our founders were two Danish engineers
who came to India and were essentially stuck
when World War II broke out,
and they created a company that's lasted 80 years.
So we are very proud of our heritage.
We come from an engineering background
and frankly what we do with Snowflake
is really bring that engineering DNA to Snowflake.
So we are, we've been a partner of Snowflake.
We are an elite partner of Snowflake,
and we work with them across all regions
in the world, actually.
50 plus customers today.
So, we have great partnership for today.
>> And I have a note here.
It says you're the GSI Delivery
Platform Partner of the Year.
Congratulations. What does that entail?
What are the requirements to get that award?
>> Yeah, I know we are very proud
that we are the Delivery Platform Partner
of the Year this year.
We were the Innovation Partner of the Year, last year.
So it shows the journey from innovation
to execution in showing delivery.
I think what it entails is that
we've been recognized for leadership
and excellence in executing Snowflake programs
at scale, the migration programs
and the implementation programs that we've done
for customers across the globe.
>> Take us back, how did you first find Snowflake?
When did you decide to lean in as a company?
>> Yeah, it's a great question actually.
You know, in fact, so we went public
as a company in 2016 and at that time,
how do I put it politely?
People weren't expecting that much of us.
They thought we'll be one amongst many other companies.
And we decided that we will vector the company
on data, digital, and cloud,
and we'll make bets on partners
that are perhaps unknown at that time.
So in late 2017, early 2018,
we started partnering with Snowflake.
And since then I must, you know, hand it to Snowflake.
We have an phenomenal partnership with them.
I just met Frank this morning.
Chris Degnan is their Chief Revenue Officer, Colleen Kapase.
All of these people have been tremendous
in terms of how they work together with us
across the world to bring what essentially
is phenomenal technology to our clients.
>> What was the allure back then?
It was, you know, cloud data warehouse,
simplified data warehouse,
the technically splitting storage from compute,
you know, infinite, blah, blah, blah.
Was that the allure and saying
or did you have a broader vision?
>> No, I think what happened was clients were struggling
with data because data and applications in our world
were sort of very tightly intertwined
and they weren't really leveraging data
for making realtime decisions.
So the moment we saw the promise of Snowflake
that you can create true data on cloud,
which on sort of all data on cloud,
you know what Frank was talking about this morning,
and it's available in real time
and you can do a lot of things on it.
We said, this is technology of the future.
It truly is because it separated storage and compute.
It did many things that were not possible before.
So I think the thing is when you see promising technology
as a GSI, you always wonder, should we wait
for it to be proven before we jump in?
>> Dave Vellante: Right.
>> Or should we jump in right up front
and help them prove the model?
And we decided to take the first approach
where we jumped in right up front.
>> Dave Vellante: You bet.
>> And I think that's helped us earlier.
>> Jumped in head first, pandemic hits, they go public.
>> Yes. >> Lots of stuff going on.
Talk to us about how you're leveraging the power
this flywheel that Snowflake has created
that I think is just getting bigger
and faster. >> Sudhir: Absolutely.
>> How are you leveraging the power
of the technology to really deliver
business outcomes for clients?
>> No, that's a great question.
And the thing with our initial focus
was to get people onto data
on cloud and with Snowflake,
but now it's really around driving
business outcomes from there.
So we have a suite called Fosfor
which is a data to decisions product suite,
which is Snowflake ready.
We've also launched PolarSled too
which is based on business outcomes.
So what we've done is we've done
is we've actually created about 155 NorthStars.
So various industry sectors,
what business outcome do you want to achieve?
We call that a NorthStar.
And then we say, how do you achieve it with Snowflake?
You know, so what we are doing is we're saying
let's achieve the business outcome
that's going to drive more consumption,
but essentially, you know, we live
in a difficult world, a increasingly difficult world.
So we want to help people take better database decisions.
>> Well, what are some of the more interesting ways
in which your clients are using Snowflake?
>> Yeah, I think when I look at, for example,
we have a client in the financial services sector
who was struggling with, you know,
they're one of the largest asset management
and fund management companies in the world.
They're a household name, everybody knows them.
And they probably have an EFT
or some sort of 401k with them.
And what they were struggling with was to say,
how do I actually get various sources of data
together in a way that I can make better asset,
you know, better fund management decisions
because otherwise it was left to a lot
of very traditional equity research reporting
and fund managers taking their expertise.
Here, the data from multiple sources being available,
running some AIML routines on it,
we're able to show them patterns
in various asset classes, on options, on investments
that they hadn't seen before.
And now that they've jumped headlong into it,
15 of their units across the world are using it now.
So I think the power of once you see data in action
that it's sort of, it's almost like
the superpower that smart people get.
It's like, yeah, like you suddenly arm them
with so much more than they had previously.
And then they get so much better at what they're doing.
And ultimately consumers like us benefit from that.
So, you know, that's really where we want to go.
>> What's LTIs like best sweet spot where,
you go into a client and you know,
wow, this is a perfect fit for what we do?
>> Yeah. So I think I would say banking
and insurance is 47% of our business.
We really understand that business extremely well.
The other aspect of that is
because we come from a manufacturing heritage.
We've had that as well.
And media is something we've done more recently.
So, you know
we've got a media cloud along with Snowflake.
So I would say these are the sectors that we are,
so we've been very domain focused
as a client, as a company.
You know, domain first, technology,
we'll work with whatever technology the domain needs
but that's really been helpful to us all.
And this is where that whole point of NorthStar
and Fosfor comes back in, which is, today,
I think without the data on cloud
you would've never achieved the kind of outcomes
that we are able to achieve with our clients today.
>> How did you feel
about the recent sales pivot
that Snowflake has made in terms of retail,
but also healthcare and life sciences?
Talk to me about that
and is that enabling your joint customers
to really leverage?
>> Yeah, no, I think it's very exciting.
We are working with clients on that.
They like the new model.
They're looking forward to,
I think what clients are now doing is
they're putting data perhaps ahead
of even in these times where people are
looking at, you know,
we are seeing seven or eight
very difficult macroeconomic trends.
People are wondering, clients are wondering,
what's this going to mean for their business in the future?
So they're looking at spends and saying,
what do I prioritize?
But what I find is
that that data spend only goes up, you know?
So, our own data practice has sort of
grown fourfold in the last six years, you know?
So it's been just an exponential growth for us.
And essentially Snowflake is our largest bet
in that space even over
every other technology that's out there.
So I think clients, when they see
that combination of how Snowflake is changing
and what we can bring to them,
I think the model works well for them.
>> You know, ecosystem is one
of the areas that we always pay attention to.
You can see, just look around,.
I mean, you compare 2019 to where we are today.
What's the importance of ecosystem
to LTI and how do you see it evolving?
>> That's a great question.
So, you know, it's like,
I think in About a Boy, you know, Hugh Grant says
that no man is an island.
You know, and I think the same thing applies for companies.
Any company, no matter what size they are,
if they think that they can do everything themselves
and I think they're not going to be successful in the long run.
We believe that the ecosystem
of partnerships is what drives all
the best outcomes for our clients
and our clients expect that today.
They want (indistinct) partners to work together.
And the thing with an ecosystem is, you know
no one person can dominate an ecosystem, you know?
The customer has to be at the center of the ecosystem
and then everybody in the ecosystem
is actually saying how best do I service the customer?
So I think if you have that kind of customer centricity
and you understand that ecosystems, you know,
on your own you'll never be as good as an ecosystem.
I think you nailed it,
but it requires, a partnering ethos
and that's what we really like about Snowflake.
Such a strong partnering ethos.
I still, I keep telling people if I text
or message Chris or Colleen,
I'll get a response in within 15, 20 minutes.
You know, that's invaluable when
you're trying to do great things
for your joint clients, you know, so.
>> Sounds like there's a lot of synergies there
around the customer obsession, customer centricity.
>> Absolutely. I think responsiveness
in today's world is key.
You know, I think the first people to respond,
even if it's to say, you know what, I hear you
I'm going to get back to you.
I think, you know, people love that about you.
It's easy to say customer centric.
It's difficult to actually practice it in real life.
And we believe that, for us, responsiveness is the key.
We'll respond no matter what time of day or night.
And the other thing is we'll respond
even with our partners, right?
We are not going to respond on our own
and then bring everybody else along.
Even things like, I don't know this
but I can refer you to a partner who can help you do this.
That's also a response.
>> That responsiveness is so critical,
especially in this day and age
where I think one of the things that was
in short supply during COVID
and one of the many things
is patience and tolerance.
>> Correct.
>> Right? On us as consumers and our business lives.
So being able to respond even just to say
we're checking, don't know yet,
that builds trust between organizations with customers.
>> Well, yeah, absolutely.
In fact, you know, even the first year of the pandemic
we grew nine and a half percent, year and year.
>> In India, we were the fastest growing company that year.
And if anybody asked me
why did you grow nine and half percent when
the industry grew at -1%, you know, in that financial.
I think it was the speed at which we responded
between February and June to client requests.
We responded even before, I know I was in calls till 12:30
in the night working with clients to say, okay
how do we fix this?
How do we change this?
How do we stop doing something?
How do we cut costs, whatever they needed.
And what we did in the first three months
actually helped us our first four months
when the first wave of the pandemic really hit.
Actually clients were like
these guys were on our side when times are tough.
Let's sort of bet on them.
And the data business actually grew.
And I keep saying this, you know,
whenever a big macro trend hits
when there's more uncertainty, people look to the data
because your judgment and experience
is no longer applicable.
Nobody in the world had any experience
or judgment that could be applied in COVID times, right?
So you need to now look at the data and say, okay,
is the data telling me something that I would never
come to know based on my own experience?
And I think, you know, this is what I call the real
database decisions is no company
in the world will say we don't do it.
But I think today's world, we are seeing real time
data decisions being taken.
We see it in the supply chain all the time.
We see it in how banks
are processing interest rate rises, et cetera.
It's the speed at which they're acting
would not be possible without a data first
kind of approach they've taken.
>> Right.
And it has to be real time these days.
>> It has to be. >> Every organization.
That's no longer a nice to have.
>> No, you know, and data is getting
out of date also so quickly.
I mean, in today's world, with the war in Ukraine
I think the first thing we realized was that
almost every parameter on commodity,
whether it was oil or steel or shipping or whatever,
it changed so rapidly that the only way to predict,
many of our clients were not able to
to tell their customers when
they would be able to deliver products
and service or products, especially manufacturing clients
because they just didn't know
when they would get their materials
and go get their parts, et cetera.
And we used data to say, okay,
let's at least establish a base on which,
because clients get disappointed,
more customers get disappointed
when you don't meet a delivery date.
So we wanted to say,
let's make it more predictable, even in unpredictable times.
So we were able to manage expectations.
We were able to do that better.
Without the data there was no way it would've happened.
There was just no way.
And frankly, for us, Snowflake is the reason.
For us it's our biggest bet in the data space.
And that's how most of the work that we are
doing in supply chain, in fact,
I'm just headed to a manufacturing event
that our team has organized,
which is with Snowflake on data
on cloud for manufacturing clients.
So we've been slightly behind the curve
compared to some of the others,
but now seeing the promise and saying, hey
let's go for this.
>> There's a tremendous amount of potential.
We're only scratching the surface.
We thank you so much >> Sudhir: Thank you.
>> For joining David me on the program, talking about LTI,
the power of what you're doing together with Snowflake.
We'll let you get to that manufacturing event.
I'm sure that they are looking forward
to talking to you. >> Yeah, no.
Thank you so much.
It was lovely to speak to you.
Thank you so much.
>> Likewise. My pleasure.
For our guest and Dave Vellante,
this is Lisa Martin signing off
from the show floor of Snowflake Summit 22.
Day one coverage is complete.
Dave and I look forward to seeing you bright
and early tomorrow for a jam packed day two.
Thanks so much for watching.
Take good care.
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