On this week's Industrial Talk we're onsite at Xcelerate 23in Orlando, FL and talking to Sue-Ann Prentice, CMO, Fluke Reliability about "Listening to customers and solving their reliability challenges". Get the answers to your "Reliability" questions along with Sue-Ann's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!
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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots. And let's get
00:21
te, we just know that it's in:
01:15
not my phone. You hear it?
01:18
I do I do. Oh, it's okay. Sue-Ann is saying she was trying to help me figure out what the bill was. That's a notification. Right?
01:28
What is it? Is it something good is about to happen? That would have been good.
01:31
You know, it's interesting. This this conference, this user conference is not too big. It's not too small. It's just a ride. And I'm able to walk through and talk to people and everybody's like, Hey, this is great. And you know, he could food talk about the challenges.
01:49
There's pockets of greatness, wherever you look just within easy access. I'm gonna
01:53
pockets of greatness. That's that, that Thank you, Sue-Ann, telling you that's pretty loud isn't? It doesn't matter because we're on site.
02:04
Now, where you were, where you're sitting, you can see everything got a great view of what's happening?
02:09
I do, I do, nobody can sneak up on me. So with that said, Suanne. For the listeners, let's give us a little background on who you are, where you come from, and then we're gonna go right into the topic.
02:23
Okay. Thank you for having me.
02:27
I had to run her down a couple of times. She's a busy person. She's
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wonderful team in January of:
03:04
It is. And it just seemed like everything worked. Well, everything. The venue, the people, the organization, the details. Here, here's a funny feedback. When you know, we were having food, we're out by the pool and the guy. Yesterday, this was yesterday. It was great. By the way the weather cooperated. Thumbs up on that. Thank you. Thank you. And the feedback was, yeah, they don't realize it, but everything was easy, easy, like, okay, the food was timed, right? I was able to have a break. And it was timed, right, you know, and it's just these things that we take for granted at an event. But this is what
03:45
it's all about no experience. Yeah, all about the experience, to make it easy. So we want to you know, when you hear I want to be able to focus and connect and network. So the other things have to just just happen seamlessly. So that maximize the time with with my, my, my colleagues, my sponsors, with you, and with the customers and will make everything else easier than the experiences is brilliant.
04:11
Okay, so here it is really your first Xcelerate Which is pretty cool. So you get you get firsthand. What are you taking away from this? What what are you hearing from the customers what what's the feedback that you're listening to from your customer user base. So
04:30
on Tuesday evening, we had our welcome drinks for everyone and everyone. You know, it's one of those like those scenes in the movies where you where people haven't seen each other for a long time and you have the open arms reaching out and the joy of seeing somebody else face to face that they haven't seen for a number of years. And then as the days have been progressing, they kind of reminiscing Oh, you know, remember when we saw each other in in the last Xcelerate face to face? So I think it's getting together in person. Everyone has a Thank you, thank you for putting this on face to face again, it's so much better than virtual. And that's been absolutely that, you know, top of the list that customers have been sharing. I think again, it's just, you know, providing an opportunity for people to come together, share stories, share their journeys, where they're on, connect with some of the, you know, the other partners and sponsors we have here. But the other thing is, there's just been immense stories about how we, you know, Fluke Reliability, is helping them the experience that they've had with us, how can they get more of a, you know, finding out of, you know, what else is coming. So, you know, talking about about the teams that they work with, across so, you know, I've been here just over a year, but still learning and listening to our customers about all the different people across the organization and how they working with them, and how they're learning from them and how they help, you know, supporting them. It's just been amazing.
06:02
To that point, what is interesting is, you're able to see it, and in the world of reliability in the world of asset management in the world of tracking, all the stuff that is taking place within the industrial space on how to, hey, let me get that data. Let me just sort of slice that data. And let me see what kind of tactical information I could get from that data, whatever it might be. And did did Fluke Reliability, sort of see, for lack of a better term. So this, this renewed vision into a reliability culture for businesses, because we were just shut down and we realized that we can't beat out there. And reliability and asset management in general is just, you know, you're you're, you're out there, you're, you're touching the thing you've looked at now that you're listening to it and all of that stuff. Has there been any sort of, you know, epiphany that happened as a result of being shut down, and then all of a sudden,
06:58
so, I mean, since I joined, so I, you know, I lead marketing across Fluke Reliability, and, and together with my team and a whole raft of people across our business, we really have been over the last year in double clicking into what is happening on the reliability space with our customers, what does it mean to them? Where are they on their journey? What are the problems they're trying to solve? And really going deep and listening to those? And then, you know, what we've been focusing on is, and I literally, you pulled me out of a panel discussion all about connected reliability with some of our customers, some of our stances. And people are talking about what does it mean for them, and we were as a group sharing our vision for the future of maintenance going forward? And what does it mean for, you know, reducing downtime and safety? And how do we capitalize a new innovation coming from the new technology? So absolutely, I think, you know, collectively, all of us there is this momentum building on on what is reliability? What is the future of that? How do we future proof our maintenance programs going forward?
08:08
You know, some of the feedback that I've received as a result of many conversation has been won, who do I trust, I go out there on Google, and I do whatever I need to do. And those the internet says, I need to be in a reliability sort of mindset, in this whole digital transformation, I need to collect that data, I need to be able to pull it in, I need to do things with it. But I'm already dealing with a bit of a business and it's got its own list set of problems, and you're asking me to do something else. I find that the the culture itself, and because of COVID, there has been this this increased focus on I need the data, I need to do it. But I think people are looking for people to trust. Please make it simple. And then thirdly, where do I start? So don't don't trust simplicity? Are you getting that from from a marketing perspective, that messaging?
09:05
It's I think that, you know, the word simplicity there is is crucial, because also you mentioned data, you know, more data doesn't necessarily mean better data. So, you know, how do we help our customers with focus on the right problems that they're trying to solve, make sense around when they are investing in new technologies that they're, they're integrating it in the right way that really is helping them not building more complexity? Use that keyword simplifying?
09:42
Yeah, because because we've just been through a very challenging time in the marketplace just in general, right? And then we'd recognize the fact that maybe I'm not as robust as or resilient as I need to be from a business perspective. But then we also talk about and what you mentioned cold Sure, does Fluke Reliability, let's say I come into my business and I want to be reliable, and I want to do all this stuff that I'm supposed to do. But it always gets down to people in that culture to constantly support you to help sort of facilitate that as well.
10:17
Absolutely. I mean, I think we, if you look, you know, one of the big trends and dynamics we're seeing in the market at the moment is, you look at the changing workforce across so many customers, they are experiencing, you know, an ageing workforce, they, there's so much mobility happening, where, you know, the diet, you know, the demographics in organizations is, is changing. And so, you know, we can come in and partner and support organizations where well, where are your gaps? Where are your skills gaps? How can we support what knowledge can we help bring in? Where can we help? You know, our culture is very big on across flick reliability and across Fortive? The company, we're part of driving improvement and continuous improvement, and where do we move forward? And how do we make things better today than they were yesterday, and one of the areas where we see particularly around that changing workforce is how can we help train, you know, companies, employees to leverage some of the the experts services, we've got to fill some of those gaps that we that we're seeing so many organizations have, from a skills perspective, perspective,
11:38
I don't have an answer. All I know is that there's a lot of pain out there when it comes to this. And when do you start talking about the reliability world, the individuals in it, and it is such a very specialized skill and profession. And it is so easy. Are we doing enough to backfill I like the fact that you train, I like the fact that there is that accessibility? And also, I think the reality is that if I'm a manufacturer, and I understand that things are happening fast, I see it out there, all that good stuff, it would seem to me to be able to collaborate partner with a company that is pretty much vertically integrated, because I can get my I can get my meters, that's fluke, fluke, I can get my tools from Fluke, but also I have all of the other elements. And then because it's changing so much. I'm keeping up, I get to work with somebody that keeps it's your responsibility, right? It's your responsibility to keep up with all of the changes, workforce, technology, AI, whatever you want to data analytics, you name
12:50
it. It's bringing all of that together. You know, we've had some amazing keynotes yesterday, this morning. You know, just thinking about the importance of all of that the people, the data, the processes, all of that coming together.
13:08
Go on over. It's exciting. And I think it's i i try. Yeah, there's there's the was that moral obligation? I mean, we it's already out of the bag, you sit there and you talk about the AI and you talk about data analytics, you talk about what is important data, what is not, you know, whatever it might be, there is a concern that there's this intrusiveness that could take place, but you know, it's happening. So you got I just think, where do you see it going? What do you put on your future hat, we've been here for all of over a year. Now you're a professional.
13:49
So, you know, the one thing the one constant we
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have in terms of where it's going is that there's change, you know, change changes, that is our, our single constant
14:01
change with a sense of speed, there's something going on there that's like,
14:06
but I you know, I think we're excited about, you know, events like this, when we come together with our, with our customers, with our, with our partners that we have, I think, you know, as an industry for us just keep communicating, keep looking at, you know, that the vision and future proofing maintenance programs, how do we help maintenance teams to really, you know, focus on those, the right problems that they're trying to solve? Because you said it earlier, there's so much pain all over the place. So I think it's just focusing on how do we simplify solutions for for, you know, for everyone, that you're keeping the world up and running,
14:50
just from my perspective, being able to have somebody I can talk to, you know, there's there's just that alone would be just an absolute No one that truly in this speaks highly of the culture that exists here at Fluke Reliability, there's a lot of positive people roaming around here. I don't see anybody that's frowning and having a, you know, well being and cloud over the head type thing. So that speaks highly.
15:15
We are excited. We're excited about what we can do with our customers together. And partnering with, with, with everyone on the journey that they're on. I said, That's what I said. There's pockets of greatness everywhere. Yeah.
15:30
I'm just telling you, I'm all I'm all intrigued by the fact that I like this. listener, you need to be on the need to be able to put this on your calendar, you will not be disappointed probably going to be in Fort Myers next year, I would imagine. Absolutely. Because that's where you're at and and why would you want to travel up to Orlando, but it is here? How do people get a hold of yourself?
15:53
Well, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. Absolutely. Both, you know, have a look. You said your Kickstarter that with have a look at Fluke Reliability. See, when printers please, I'd love to connect with with you on LinkedIn. And I'd absolutely you if you've missed out on Xcelerate 23 Look out for Xcelerate 24 You don't want to miss it.
16:18
There it is, you are absolutely spectacular. And it was worth the wait. Worth the weight of being able to connect with you. Oh, there's the photographer, right.
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capturing moments that matter
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is the action shot. All right, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side, we're gonna have all the contact information for Sue Ann as well as liability. Anything about reliability, Booth, reliability, Xcelerate, email, it's all out on industrial talk. So you know, you're not going to be left alone. Thank you very much for joining. And for your support. We're going to wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned, we will be right back.
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