The NEXT Big Thing
- Details
- Written by Nasheen Liu
I didn’t go to Vegas looking for the next big thing. I went as a Canadian media delegate to attend Hitachi NEXT, Hitachi Vantara’s annual smart data conference. The event brought together 10,000 people with the goal of sharing insights and knowledge about data, the new currency for the digital economy.
I’ve been to NEXT every year since 2017, when Hitachi launched the inaugural event celebrating the birth of Hitachi Vantara, the merger of Hitachi Data Systems, Pentaho, and Hitachi Insight Group. The vision was to transform Hitachi from an infrastructure player to a data-centric business, which would allow the company to better deliver customer outcomes.
Since 2017, Hitachi has focused their message around leveraging100+ years of Operational Technology experience and more than half a century of IT expertise to deliver a “double bottom line”, a mission that drives both economic and social benefits for customers and society.
This year, Hitachi Vantara put the industry on notice in a big way with several significant announcements that included industry leading infrastructure and software solutions and key strategic partnerships. In addition, environmental outcomes were also highlighted as a third bottom line that was solidified by customer successes.
Hitachi’s “Powering Good” mission resonated with many attendees I spoke with. I interviewed 17 senior leaders, including Hitachi executives, their customers and partners, as well as media colleagues. We captured a wealth of insights that have been compiled into10 videos that can be watched below.
In part one of a two-part video collage, I asked Marcel Escorcio, Ken Marks, Prem Domingo and Kevin Lyons of Hitachi Vantara about their key takeaways.
Hitachi Executive Perspectives
Part two features perspectives from Michael Nash, a Hitachi partner; Mark Cox of ChannelBuzz; Mathi Natarajan of CGI; Brian McColl of ESI; Shuja Goraya of Precision Drilling; Craig McLellan of ThinkOn, Jude Vanniasinghe and Michael Bastedo of Bell Business Markets; and Corin O’Conell of Broadcom.
Industry Executive Perspectives
Paul Lewis, Global VP and CTO of Hitachi Vantara gave me a private tour of the Solution Showcase. In this 9-min video, Paul connected the dots of Hitachi’s “Powering Good” message via a visual display of ecosystem of value, industry and outcome-centric approach, data-driven strategies, edge-to-cloud infrastructure, and social innovation efforts. The tour also featured Hitachi’s LiDAR detectors that monitored our every move.
Solution Showcase Tour with Paul Lewis
When speaking with several customers and partners of Hitachi, I was impressed by Bell and ThinkOn. The former, a large telco provider who’s trying to transform itself in a competitive marketplace. The latter, a wholesale provider of infrastructure and data management and one of the fastest-growing SMBs in Canada. Both have been a customer and partner of Hitachi for some time. I was curious about their perspectives of the partnerships and their learnings from NEXT this year.
Executive Insights with Michael Bastedo
Executive Insights with Craig McClellan
One of the highlights for me was seeing a Canadian success story on the mainstage. Precision Drilling, a Calgary-based oil and gas company, started their digital journey three years ago. At NEXT 2018, Shuja Goraya, CTO of Precision Drilling realized that their initial approach of “widget first, data second” couldn’t have been more wrong and that “whatever you do with digital, it has to start with data”. Through co-creation with Hitachi and in a span of seven months, they achieved 25% to 35% performance gains and reduced the reporting cycle from 2-3 weeks to daily. As a result, Precision was recognized with the Digital Transformation Award at NEXT 2019. For an industry that is historically behind the technology adoption curve, it was truly an inspiring story.
In this featured interview, I spoke with Shuja about his exciting and fast-paced journey, lessons learned, and what’s ahead for Precision Drilling. Shuja also shared the one key message from the event that he will apply to his mandate.
Executive Insights with Shuja Goraya
I had the opportunity to sit down with three senior Hitachi executives for an in-depth discussion about the announcements and their significance for a CIO driving a digital transformation agenda. My conversations with Paul Lewis, GVP and CTO; John Magee, VP, Portfolio Marketing; and Hu Yoshida, CTO, yielded a wealth of crunchy goodness. Their messaging was authentic and consistent.
They spoke about the importance of intelligent data operations in enabling digital transformation and offered their advice to CIOs. We also discussed the topic of talent through co-creation and Hitachi’s efforts in building a culture of technology and social innovation.
Executive Insights with Paul Lewis
Executive Insights with John Magee
Executive Insights with Hu Yoshida
Because Marcel Escorcio stole my microphone earlier (see: collage part two), I decided to let him have the last word. As Regional Vice President and General Manager of Canada, Marcel shared his key observations, what the announcements mean for his Canadian customers, and why driving business outcomes with a strong ecosystem of partners is a necessity.
Executive Insights with Marcel Escorcio
I asked everyone about their key takeaways, and it’s only fair that I share mine. First, it’s clear that having the right data-driven strategy can alter the DNA for any business in the digital economy. Second, doing well and doing good can co-exist. A technology company with both social and environmental sensibilities can power good.
I didn’t go to Vegas looking for the NEXT big thing, but to my delight, I found it.
Nasheen Liu is the Managing Partner and SVP, CIO Program Strategy at the IT Media Group spearheading the company’s business plan and leading our media and executive branding practice. She also chairs our CIO Advisory Board comprised of senior IT executives from industry and academia.
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