“Organizations are either going to be disruptive or they’re going to get disrupted. There’s a lot of thought being put into that. It’s a real thing.”

– Tim Quinn, Cloud evangelist

As demand for data and analytics grows in business, many companies are waking to the reality that their legacy systems do not capture the information they need. In order to continue evolving their analytical capabilities, leadership teams often find that they have to leave their legacy systems behind and move to cloud-based solutions. Moving to the cloud brings its own challenges, one of which is data security.

Tim Quinn is a Cloud evangelist and trusted advisor and Kevin Coy is the Co-Chair of Arnall Golden Gregory’s Privacy Practice. They work to help companies bring their supporting technology up to date and into the cloud, preparing for the security risks that they will encounter.

In this conversation, Tim and Kevin tell Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton:

· The importance of human capital and how leaders should work with people to build a productive corporate culture

· The common challenges and objections that prevent people from leaving their legacy technology and moving to the cloud

· The planning required to emphasize data security, including having a legally compliant privacy policy and plans for responding to data breaches and other security incidents

Intro/Outro (00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world, supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things, supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:28):

Hey, good afternoon, Scott Luton and Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s show Greg. We’ve got a great one in store. When we’re talking with a couple of business leaders doing big things in the industry, especially as it relates to cloud and data privacy, cybersecurity stuff, right? Yeah. Cloud and law. What a great combination. I mean, seriously, I mean, the cloud has introduced an entirely new era in technology. Um, so yeah, I think it’s going to be interesting to talk about. I agree. We’re gonna be working hard to increase your supply chain tech, uh, Q here today. More to come on that. And just a moment quick program before we get started. Hey, if you enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to check us out and subscribe for free wherever you get your podcasts from that’s right for free. And if you don’t like an episode, we’ve got a money back guarantee.

Scott Luton (01:17):

So looking forward to this conversation that you don’t miss conversations like this, that’s why you want to subscribe. So let’s bring in our featured guests, Tim Quinn, vice president, client advisory with candid, Tim, how are you doing? Very good, Scott. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Welcome aboard you bet. Welcome today. And you’re joined by Kevin coy partner with our friends over Arnold golden, Gregory, LLP, Kevin, how you doing? Good. Thanks Scott. Thanks for the invitation. Glad to have you. Yeah, we’ve enjoyed our pre-show conversation on a wide ranging pre-show. Can’t wait to dive more into all things cloud and, and law as, as Greg put it great combination, but let’s start Greg. Before we get to work, let’s start by getting to know both of these, uh, Tim and Kevin look better. So Tim, we’ll start with you. Tell us where you’re from and give us an anecdote or two about your upbringing actually, uh, raised in rural West Georgia from a military family.

Tim Quinn (02:12):

So discipline was important growing up, small town West Georgia, uh, ended up going to university of Georgia. Uh, my English class or my history class is bigger than my entire high school. So that was interesting. I ended up going to Georgia then, um, actually then turned around and went to Georgia tech. So I’m covered my I’m covered on both sides of the fence there if I run for political office. So that’s a bit about me and then really been in the tech and tech space for a little over 25 years, um, doing some pretty interesting things. So I look forward to sharing some of these experiences. So you got it, you know, your kinda, um, has your bets a bit, what town did you grow up in? Raymond, Georgia, Georgia. Yeah. Love. Breman lots of out there. Surprisingly Honda, Honda locks out there. You’ve got a Southwire around the corner. Yeah. Sounds like a neat town. Nice place to grow up. Grow up. Yup. All right, Kevin, same question. Tell us about where you’re from and, and give us, give us the goods on your upbringing a bit.

Kevin Coy (03:15):

Sure. I’m from, uh, from a small town in Southeastern Michigan, a great little town called Ida I it’s between Detroit and Toledo. Uh, just a small little farming community. Uh, the grain silos, uh, dominate the town skyline. Uh, back when I was growing up, the time was about a block and a half long after I, uh, after I went away to school, uh, we have a growth spurt and so we’re about two and a half blocks long. Now it was a, it was a great place to grow up. Um, my family owned still owns, uh, one of the two bars in town and, um, you know, just a fun, little place

Scott Luton (03:52):

Better than being mayor only owning the bar in town. You know, more about what’s going on. That’s so true. One and a half blocks to two and a half blocks, huge growth spurt there. Kevin, I love that. All right. So what, where did you spend what’s one thing growing up in ATA, Michigan. What’s one thing that, that you miss, uh, about your childhood or your formative years?

Kevin Coy (04:13):

Oh, well, it was just sort of a small town experience where everybody, everybody knew everybody. Um, you know, I live in DC now and that’s not really the case anymore. So it sort of missed that a little bit. You know, I was, uh, something of a geek growing up and still am. So, you know, my hobbies were things like stamp collecting and coin collecting. And when I went away to college, uh, when I went to Georgetown, they had a little, uh, little survey. You were supposed to fill out to talk about your interest in things. So I put down coin collecting, uh, apparently they had a little trouble with my hand with my handwriting. And so when the directory came out, it said, how collecting, right? It’d be the, uh, the, I am the end. And so I had a lot of explaining to do my freshman year as to the intricacies of cow, collecting

Scott Luton (05:06):

Love that, love that. And, and speaking of stamp, collecting, I’ve got a new found appreciation for that. Uh, my wife and I have really enjoyed the Fargo series own, I guess, Hulu and the third season folk that the backdrop is, uh, a stamp collection that two brothers kinda duked it out over so fascinating stuff. All right. So let’s, I want to go back to Tim here for a minute, Greg let’s let’s, you know, we’re all in search of really good information sharing on the pulse stuff, Greg, kind of, as you put it, the bar owner in town knows everybody, and it’s got, got kind of a corner market on market Intel, right? How great of a position that would be. But Tim, you know, in, in this ever evolving landscape, which what’s one of your go tos for good news information insights, you name it.

Tim Quinn (05:48):

Well actually now of course, that’s, that’s a, that’s a given of course King. Now I get a lot of information on LinkedIn. I really spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. It keeps up with the trends that what’s gone on with the kind of the businesses that I’m kind of focused on from a, I’ve been reading an interesting book, uh, a couple of things I do every about every three to four years. There’s a book called execution, the discipline, the art of getting things done, which I read that about every three to four years. That’s the remind me about that. And there’s another interesting book that I’m reading that my CTO Aaron Bochum had recommended. And it’s a really interesting book about digital transformation. And if you’re interested in digital transformation kind of, and how do you kind of break down silos and break down kind of the bureaucracies within large, you know, large enterprises, I would strongly recommend a book by a guy named Mark Swartz. It’s, uh, uh, the delicate art of bureaucracy, digital transformation with the monkey, the razor and the Sumo wrestler. So I’m just starting that book. I’ll keep you guys posted on it, but, uh, highly recommended for those that are interested in kind of digital transformation and modernizing your it infrastructure and processes. So is it okay,

Greg White (07:03):

The business novel approach, the, or are those metaphors for the transformation or

Tim Quinn (07:09):

Are metaphors for the transformation and the silos within very large enterprises? And of course, um, at candid re we deal with very large organizations, mostly fortune 500 organizations, fortune 1000 organizations where they’re really trying to modernize and move forward on their digital transformation initiatives. But it’s a very, very difficult thing internally from a bureaucracy perspective and systems and processes perspective. So it’s kind of a trainee book for me in terms of what we do at, uh, at candidacy.

Greg White (07:42):

We struggle with podcast titles all the time, a hundred characters or less, and it looks like that author has, has done really well coming up with a nice creative way of selling his books, positioning the book. So love it. Uh, we should also add, uh, Greg click, the transform it’s hit the bestseller charts, right? I was just talking to him. I think we just released an episode, a couple episodes with him in the last couple of weeks. That’s right. Keela sunrise. That’s right, Tim, I’d be interested if you maybe just listen to that. Maybe even grab the book. It’d be interesting to compare perspectives on that. There’s so many people talking about digital transformation these days, and I think you nailed it and it’s as much about process and organization and leadership as it is about technology.

Tim Quinn (08:34):

Absolutely. Greg and I’d love to get that book. And you, we had a meeting yesterday with a fortune 200 company in the financial services space, and we asked her or the VP of cloud what her biggest challenge was, and it wasn’t technology. It was human capital cloud is scary, even technology people. And even to,

Kevin Coy (08:56):

You know, I, to people out it’s a scary, sometimes scary concept.

Greg White (09:02):

All right. So Kevin, before we’re kind of moving into both of your, uh, professional journeys. What’s your go-to, what’s a, go-to when it comes to really good information insights, you name it

Kevin Coy (09:13):

Two suggestions for everyone. Although unfortunately, the, there are no monkeys or razors or any minutes, so are gonna be, uh, this is going to be far more bland, but, but solid sources from my perspective, which is privacy and data security on the privacy side, the website is iapp.org. It’s the website of the international association of privacy professionals. They’re a global organization, about 50,000 members. They have great resources on privacy law developments around the world across sectors. And so it’s a, it’s a good resource and a good organization. And on the data security side, a site called Krebs on security, uh, which the gentleman that runs that site is a, I think a former Washington post reporter. And he reports on a whole range of data, security issues, data breaches, and the like good source of sort of what’s happening in the data breach space now

Greg White (10:12):

Outstanding. Uh, sometimes it’s a couple of great resources. Somebody referred me to Krebs the other day. And how about the irony of, uh, of a, uh, a privacy professional group with 50,000 members, right. They’re growing. I think it would be harder to get into than that. Kevin,

Kevin Coy (10:31):

As long as you care about privacy, that’s our number one concern, you know, being flexible.

Greg White (10:37):

Sure. I appreciate you both sharing that. That’s, that’s good. And as you are both readers or studiers, I’m always interested, but you know, as you go through and you, you live your life and you run your career and you go through this journey and you study things, you always seem to have one or more of those Eureka moments. So Tim, I’d like to start with you share anything that you feel like has really kind of shaped you or, or even caused you to change your point of view.

Kevin Coy (11:08):

Interesting. I, I’m kind of a serial entrepreneur kind of from a background perspective. So back in the early or late 1990s, early two thousands, I started a really first software company. That company was called route maps software. He started right in the.com dot bomb era here in Atlanta. We did supply chains, blockchain optimization, route optimization, schedule optimization, dispatching things of that nature for transportation logistics. And that was 29 years old. And the high moment was that six months into it, nine months into it. I realized that a 29 year old kid is probably not qualified to build they’ll build that company, but I persevered learned a lot on the job and kind of came of other on the other end. Pretty good. So, uh, involved in that company 14 years did really well. And actually this most recently got bought by Uber.

Greg White (12:01):

That’s a really mature awakening for somebody 29 years old, right? You think you’re really grown up at 29, but to recognize that you might not be the optimal person for that role, that that’s a really mature awakening that most people don’t have until a later age in some, I don’t know me may not have had yet.

Kevin Coy (12:25):

I look back on that and realize kind of the things that are important that I just didn’t understand at that age, in terms of how you, how you deal with people, how you build a corporate culture, how important human capital is, and not having all the answers, you know, I thought I had all the answers, but I clearly didn’t. So it was a very strong eyeopening moment for me. And it kind of taught me a lot of lessons moving forward. Okay.

Greg White (12:50):

Fantastic. And congratulations by the way on whatever goodness came of that. But, uh, having Uber on your, on your resume is not a bad thing. Uh, Kevin, same question to you. I mean, anything that just completely shifted your focus or increased your focus or changed your worldview?

Kevin Coy (13:09):

I don’t know about any single Eureka moment where the light bulb went off as it were, but at some point along the line, law can often be very detail oriented by, uh, by design. And that’s very important. Uh, but also that there are, uh, when working with clients also big picture considerations and business needs to be needed to be taken into account. And it’s just sort of an important practice, I think, to be able to, as best you can sort of shift back and forth as you need to between the big picture considerations and the nitty gritty of the legal requirements. Because especially in, in my area, privacy and data security, there are a lot of differing requirements in a lot of different jurisdictions. If you get down into the weeds and sometimes you’ve got to go down into the weeds, it can get messy, important to try and also remember the big picture and from a privacy perspective, not only is what are you doing? Can you do it, but should you do it?

Greg White (14:18):

Yeah, that’s a coup you know, I got to tell you that is a common reframe. When we talk to people that are in the legal industry is they kind of accumulate an analysis of their life. You’re probably the third or fourth attorney that we’ve talked to said I can’t pin down. Or don’t, won’t maybe pin down a single epiphanal moment, right there. It’s kind of an accumulation of moments that you use as you go forward. So that’s, that’s really, that’s really interesting. There’s something to that. I mean, something to being a lawyer and thinking of the world in that way, the rest of us kind of have a wake up at some point. And maybe you’re just, you guys are just that much more aware in the moment, or I don’t know, what am I, you know, Greg, one of our favorite Eureka moments, unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get them on the show yet, but Mark Twain once said that a man that carries a cat by the tail learns a lesson that you can’t learn any other way, basically. So that’s our favorite kind of Eureka moment, but Hey, the accumulation of experiences certainly is valuable too. We’re working, we’re working through his publicist. So we’re hopeful. We know that he voted this year. So, um,

Tim Quinn (15:33):

But I can’t compete with Mark Twain. Yeah.

Greg White (15:36):

Right, right. That’s a tough year. A close second, Kevin, you’re a close second. So Tim, tell us a little bit about candid, a little more about it and, and kind of what you do and, and, um, you know, how, how you’re, you’re seeing the industry from that seat.

Tim Quinn (15:52):

Candid is the, uh, largest and fastest growing independent cloud consulting firm in the nation. We work primarily with very large enterprises on really five core areas. In terms of cloud. We only do plow. We don’t do enterprise implementations, SAP or Salesforce. We only do cloud. And what I mean by cloud is we work with our, we work with customers to help, uh, define cloud strategy or form enterprise application migration from on-premise data centers into the cloud. Um, we provide cloud native development, active build apps and connect those apps, anything mainframe, modernization, believe it or not guys. And I know a lot of folks are listening that it’d be listening is there’s a lot of mainframe data still out in the world. About 80% of the data in the world is still on AMA. Wow. And this is mainframe. We migrated a mainframe or mainframe software that had the software had not been compiled in 41 years. It had not been recompiled in 41 years. And that’s a fact,

Greg White (17:01):

Tim tell people what, what recompiling will do. So, so that are non-tech folks. Yep.

Tim Quinn (17:07):

Yeah. So a software, there’s a, there’s a concept in software development called compilation. And there’s a compiler that turns, turns pseudo code or written code into binary formats that computers can read. That’s what the compiling process is. So if you make a change in the software program, say this case is a mainframe using something called RPG on an ice Barry’s IBM mainframe. If you’d want to make a change and say to fix a bug or add a feature, you have to recompile that code in order to put that into a production environment. So they’ve not. So one particular client did not make a single change in her soccer in 41 years until we migrated to the cloud. So, which is really, really amazing. Um, the last thing that Canada does is they do something called DevOps, which is a really, really, really big trend right now in terms of how you manage your development process in the cloud from, uh, pushing out releases, QA and testing it there’s concepts of dev ops and also dev sec ops or security ops. So we also focus on that as well with Kevin having a security background and kind of the legal background that dev sec ops is a big part of what we do around security auditing assessments to make sure that the data is safe

Greg White (18:32):

And dev ops is really the discipline around development that helps assure that you get code out in good quality and in appropriate time. Correct.

Tim Quinn (18:43):

That’s exactly right. And there’s actually new positions and new careers for dev ops engineers, dev ops architects, which is a masters and all of that. It’s a highly sought after skill set now in the marketplace from a talent perspective, from a human perspective,

Greg White (19:00):

The way that companies are developing these days has enabled a lot of speed in terms of development. And sometimes that speed comes at the, at the expense of discipline. So dev ops is an, is, is an initiative to help try to merge the two together.

Tim Quinn (19:18):

When we talk about cloud, you know, you know, we talk about Newton out for agility, for, uh, innovation speed of innovation, speed to market, as well as cost reduction. So all those things have to be kind of considered. And, um, Greg has kind of, you know, what do I do at candid? My job is really working with customers to help them understand what that path would be and identified it and information to make the best decision as it relates to the cloud. And there are some times where it just doesn’t make sense at this time, even move to the cloud. And we’re very honest and transparent in that one point I want to bring up because again, it was brought up by one of our, our customers, uh, this week was why move to the cloud, um, without a proper business justification. And so I work with our customers really by the use cases and the business cases, why to make that decision and how to do it, and then bring the resources, the technical resources to really give them that, uh, that competence to be able to do that.

Greg White (20:17):

You know, we hear about moving to the cloud all the time. So I’m fascinated by the fact that there are cases that would preclude you from doing that. What’s what’s the most prominent or the one that just stands out in your mind the most.

Tim Quinn (20:31):

No, that the one that’s probably the biggest that we see is around older legacy systems, primarily around point of sale and billing systems, because that runs the business and what we’ve seen, the biggest challenge, one of the biggest challenges is again, not the tech, not even the people, but the business processes that have been built around say that particular system over the past 30, 40, 50 years, it’s so much data. So many business processes built into it. If the change, the change impact, the change management associated with that is a simply massive, uh, we do work with our customers to go through that process, but that’s, that’s a really big one. And again, it’s all about business process and the impact that these 30, 40, 50 year old processes built around a piece of technology,

Greg White (21:24):

You can almost picture it, right? Here’s, here’s the technology. And then here’s all the stuff that they’ve built around it. It’s hard to get down through that, into that technology. Plus all of those customizations can be unsupported, right? So they, they create a tremendous burden.

Tim Quinn (21:41):

And Greg, what we’re seeing is the demand for data and data analytics and, um, some of the trends that we’re seeing out in the world around machine learning, predictive analytics, the value of that concept is starting to drive people to make those types of decisions, but that the data is not available in these older legacy systems. It’s just not available to do the things that we need to do.

Greg White (22:05):

Yeah. That’s a good point in the supply chain world. You see that frequently, Kevin, I think we’ve, well-established that you’re not the only geek here. So tell us a little bit about, you know, what you do at agg and particularly your specialty around privacy and security,

Kevin Coy (22:22):

Gigi, uh, Arnold golden Gregory, where we’re an Atlanta based firm, uh, with, uh, about 170 lawyers or so most sitting down in Atlanta, I’m based up in our DC office. My practice focuses on privacy and data security law issues. I advise a wide range of organizations on privacy and data security issues ranging from putting together a legally compliant privacy policy to responding to data breaches and other security incidents handled government investigations around those matters as well as assisting clients comply with federal state and also international privacy laws and regulations, including those governing the transporter data glows because some countries not so much the us, but the European union, a number of other jurisdictions restrict the flows of personal data to other countries, depending upon what the law in those countries look like. So there’s a lot of questions that come up around that.

Greg White (23:26):

Yeah, I’ve dealt with that. So when you have a company, you don’t even have to be technically operating because if you’re in the, in the cloud, right, a technology in the cloud, anyone can use it from anywhere. But if you have EU citizens who are utilizing your technology, you still have to comply with GDPR. I wish I could tell you what GDPR means, but I bet you can.

Kevin Coy (23:48):

Yeah. As the, the general data protection regulation, it’s their newest iteration of privacy laws that came on the books in can entered into full force in may of 2018. And it’s been a, a big change, as you mentioned, is kind of the legal jargon for it is extra territorial reach. But essentially that, as you say means that if you’re doing business, uh, with Europe, even if you’re not in Europe, you potentially have compliance obligations under that regulation. Uh, also potential legal exposure. There there’s some ins and outs to it, depending on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. But, um, that applies and it’s much stronger than most us loss that we, it would fit something for a us organization. Uh, sometimes a little bit of work to get your arms around it.

Greg White (24:36):

It’s not without significant complexities, but, and you know, I think consumers for our community, who’s listening or watching this, if you wonder the impact of GDPR, think about every time you go to a website. And now there is an accept cookies option on EV on virtually every website and on every website, by the way, you can select which cookies to allow that is specifically due to compliance with GDPR.

Scott Luton (25:01):

Yes. None with raisins cookies do not Berets do not belong cookies. So that’s our public message. Give me the service message.

Greg White (25:11):

I think it’s cruel by the way, Scott, that people put raisins in cookies, the Greek like chocolate chips and trick us into selecting those cookies.

Scott Luton (25:21):

Oh boy. How much fun we can continue with this one? Hey, Kevin, do you work in the same office with Kevin Bell?

Kevin Coy (25:28):

Yes. Yes I do. Oh, wow. Haven’t relates because of all this COVID stuff, but it’s just a two, three doors down from me.

Greg White (25:37):

He might have the most quoted quote on supply chain now, Scott,

Scott Luton (25:40):

That’s true. Gosh, Greg, you want me to do, you can find opportunity in this challenging environment without being opportunistic. And that was a, that was one of many things he shared, but gosh, Greg, Kevin coy and Kevin Bell, that’s quite a one, two punch.

Greg White (25:56):

It is. Yeah. I mean, you know, what a timely space, a timely space, time and space. I mean, I think privacy is huge and I’m assuming Tim, that you and Kevin must do some work together or you do some work in that same space because privacy is such a huge concern when it comes to cloud technologies. Right?

Kevin Coy (26:20):

Absolutely it is. And, um, first I need to give a big shout out to Michael Bolton who is in Atlanta office is a good friend. And so Kevin, you probably know Michael and, uh, Oh, absolutely. So, uh, shout out to him and we do work with AGD on some of these types of issues. As an example, we’re doing for a very, very large consumer goods company here in Atlanta, we’re doing a security assessment and audit where there’s an attestation document that has to be generated, which is the legal document. And, um, that’s something where the Kevins of the world can come in and kind of help us out with, in terms of, uh, putting those things together.

Scott Luton (27:01):

That’s a great point. Hey, you know, we were talking earlier about as fast as change is evolving as fast as we’re moving, generally speaking with technology, you know, Kevin, I imagine that opens up the doors for threat, especially from a cybersecurity David privacy standpoint. You know, we’re all familiar with all the big name retailers that have, uh, that have, uh, had some, uh, some bad things happen to them and their consumers in recent years. Speak to that a bit as fast as we’re moving. W w what does that do?

Kevin Coy (27:31):

The threats continue to proliferate, um, the sort of the, the, the good guys, the bad guys continue to move, move a pace every time the good guys come up with a new good innovation from a security standpoint, the bad guys are right there trying to find out new ways of exploiting it to, to, to find vulnerabilities and to take advantage that the COVID pandemic, no exception there. As many organizations were forced to go to, uh, a much greater degree of remote work than they, uh, than they were before. And companies had to scramble to, to put that functionality in place in many cases, creates new opportunities, new vulnerabilities, depending on how the workforce is connecting to the system, how secure those connections are to, uh, to potentially be exploited. And the, um, uh, and the bad actors are still also, uh, using the same sorts of tricks of the trade that they’ve been using for awhile. Now, everything from, uh, ransomware to phishing attacks and other types of, of malware to compromise, uh, compromised systems steal personal data, or in the ransomware case, lock it up and hold it to ransom.

Scott Luton (28:51):

All right. So let’s, let’s kind of own that note. Let’s kind of move a little more broad here. Uh, and Tim, we’ll bring you back in, you know, as we’re surveying here that the, as we move towards the end of a historically challenging year, there’s no shortage of things that we’re all tracking on our radar with our finger on the pulse, but what’s one in particular, maybe we haven’t talked about from a global supply chain perspective that you and the candidate team are tracking.

Kevin Coy (29:14):

Well, one of the big things we’re tracking and, uh, and then you guys had a discussion on it yesterday with a webinar on IOT that we’re seeing IOT coming into into the, the mix also supply chain much more effectively. So I haven’t actually had an ILT background in the previous company. So that’s part of my responsibilities, but we’re seeing is, uh, within the supply chain is the need for real time. Visibility is, uh, within the supply chain. And I think COVID

Tim Quinn (29:42):

Has kind of, we’re all now working at home. We are not in front of a machine or in front of a computer that’s on premise that may or may not have access to it for whatever, whatever reason. So we’re seeing really the driver, the driver, uh, within the supply chain is real-time visibility into the supply chain end to end within the supply chain, and then taking that data and creating a more connected customer at the end of the day. That’s what it’s about. So we’re seeing that that’s driving a lot of our business as well, as of course, what I mentioned earlier is the need for data. When I say data, predictive data, contextual data and prescriptive data, those are the things that we focus on. You know, don’t tell if things are failing, tell me things are failing, but then tell me how to fix it or automatically fix it through what we call a serverless infrastructure, a serverless code to go out and do that automatically.

Tim Quinn (30:38):

So we’re seeing a lot of trends around, around that. And of course, machine learning is, is big. And I know it’s a buzz word and as a bit of a cliche, but it’s really driving between the machine learning and the artificial intelligence stuff and tools that are out there that are being provided by the cloud major cloud providers or as microservices, right. That makes it more available than it was even two years ago. There’s tons of open source libraries and microservices available to folks like us in our technical world that can take advantage of these much more effectively. And you know, what I’m also seeing is a lot of these larger organizations, either they’re going to be disruptive or they’re going to get disrupted. And there’s a lot of, I’ll say scared. There’s a lot of thought being put in that. And it it’s a real thing.

Scott Luton (31:30):

Well, I guess stuff there, Tim, we’re gonna have to have you back. So we’d take a deeper dive in some of the things that you’re tracking. Two quick thoughts. I love the, um, just like we’ve seen in, in the digital content and the podcasts arena. We need Daryl lewd here. No kidding democratization democratization. Thank you, Greg. But you know that tech innovation for the people that is such a beautiful thing, and I know that that opens up a variety of, of challenges as well. And it’s such a wonderful thing. There’ll be the see taking place. And then secondly, you were talking about all the data earlier in your, your thoughts there. And Greg from the webinar yesterday, our boss, or our friend, Bob slaving with open text mentioned how putting data in the hands of those that care and those that are qualified. And, and, and really that was, that seemed to resonate with a bunch of folks. And, and that leads me to bring Kevin back in here. Obviously data privacy is a big area of your specialization beyond what you’ve shared a moment ago. What else are you tracking out there and global global business global supply chain. Yeah,

Tim Quinn (32:28):

Two thoughts there, one just from a general privacy perspective, the legal requirements continue to evolve and on a patchwork basis by jurisdiction

Kevin Coy (32:40):

Is very important from a privacy law perspective. If not privacy principles, we talked about GDPR a little bit earlier, but also here in the U S California has a new privacy law that just took a fact earlier this year, it’d be in California. They’ve just substantially amended that new law through a ballot initiative that passed earlier this month. So a lot of changes there, a lot of new obligations that came online this year are going to be coming online with that amendment over the next year or two organizations are going to have to think about their, their business activities in California, how they’re covered under those rules and what they’re going to need to do to comply from a privacy policy perspective, a consumer rights perspective, including their, their employees here, as well as consumers that they’re involved with as part of the supply chain and also the needs of their customers, because that law has requirements for businesses to flow obligations down to service providers. So it can trickle through the supply chain.

Scott Luton (33:47):

Love it, man, exciting times, despite the backdrop exciting times to be in supply chain. You know, there’s so many silver linings to this pandemic landscape that we’re in, that’s going to make the industry stronger, tough lessons learned, and really surface some gaps and weaknesses and global supply chains that we’re, we’re able to address and, and take actionable Greg so much good stuff here with Kevin and Tim, certainly over my pay grade as a non technologist in many ways, but Greg to our listeners, you know, if you’re sharing some key takeaways, what we’re hearing, we’re hearing with Tim and Kevin, what would those items be?

Greg White (34:21):

One that really leaps out to me is the hurdles of getting to the cloud to hear that. I think Tim, you said 70% of data is still on, is that right? 80% is the stat that I was 80%. Okay. Business data that is still on in essentially on premise technologies. And also to hear from Tim that there are substantial reasons, you know, that I think maybe I certainly hadn’t really thought deeply about. And many of us probably haven’t that companies would not go to the cloud. That’s big, first of all, not terribly surprising that there’s so much data on prem, but secondly, to think about what the practical hurdles that Tim described as difficulties for getting there, um, you can of course see it when the issue is raised, but it’s not apparent to think about how much intervention, how many manual processes or human processes, or even technical customizations have been made to some of these applications that preclude them from being easily or cost-effectively taken to the cloud.

Greg White (35:29):

You know, in, secondly of course the data issues that it presents and because it is out there cloud particularly, but because solutions in the cloud are out there, the, the obligations, the risks, the legal consequences, and of course the complexities that impact our privacy every single day. And I think we’ve gotten pretty cavalier about our privacy as individuals. And I’m frankly thankful that GDPR has been applied effectively, if not, if not legally effectively around the world, because I am one of those, one of those people, you know, I wouldn’t be so paranoid if everyone wasn’t out to get me, but I am one of those people who, when they say accept cookies or in the tiny, tiny font that they try to hide in the same color as the banner that it’s on. I’m the one who clicks those and clicks off advertising and clicks off the data, statistics tracking and only leaves the necessary operating cookies in there. So I think there are some good things that are happening, and it sounds like, frankly, California’s trying to legislate the States from their own domicile by, by providing kind of a GDPR for California. And there are lots of sides to that story, but in the end, hopefully we become mindful of that because all of that, we as consumers, because all of that empowers the cloud to operate that much more effectively and to evolve that much more quickly

Tim Quinn (36:55):

As an example, actually. So Kevin mentioned that I didn’t know there was a consumer, a California consumer privacy act, CCPA, I guess, is what they call it. It goes by like I quickly Googled it. And I was curious how some of the major cloud providers handle it, but just an interesting point, as an example, AWS, one of the larger cloud providers force Amazon, they actually released a microservice that actually helps companies meet that requirement. So just how fast that the cloud providers are moving just as fast as the support that they also have a GDPR microservice to help with that requirement, SOC one, SOC two HIPAA, you name them all there. You don’t have to light that yourself. And to pull that yourself, you take advantage of the microservices for those particular issues from a technical perspective.

Greg White (37:37):

So that’s a huge service because it is terribly complex. I mean, just two years ago, I had a company and we were trying to comply with GDPR and it was not a small task. I mean, the hurdles are substantial. The benefit of moving to the cloud is great because you have literally unlimited processing power and you have access to all of this new data that Tim was talking about that allows you to do things that technology companies that were built prior to cloud can’t even comprehend. They couldn’t use the data if you gave it to them because they don’t have the underlying compilations, the underlying code to be able to capitalize on those rich data sets. So it’s important that we get there. There’s just so much to win by getting there

Scott Luton (38:22):

The latest Eureka moment powered by the, the, uh, incredible talented agg team here in this series. Always sharing Eureka moments with our guests here. So Kevin owned that note, let’s make sure folks how to connect with you and the team at Arnold golden, Gregory LLP.

Tim Quinn (38:38):

You reached me on LinkedIn, uh, Kevin L coy, uh, just my name, uh, or by email and Kevin dot coil@agg.com

Scott Luton (38:48):

Is just that easy. Of course, uh, gray we’ll include these links in the show notes to make it, you know, we’re all after chasing after that one, click that one click with no cookies required. Tim, what about you? How, how can folks connect with you and the candid team

Tim Quinn (39:04):

Visit our website@wwwdotcandid.cloud. Um, you can reach me@mdotwynnatcandid.cloud or on LinkedIn, Tim Quinn, 42,

Scott Luton (39:14):

Outstanding congrats, all of your rapid growth at it. Candid team. Tim has quite a story and I love all the, the, the pictures of the, of the team you’ll have on your website. It seems like culture first, that candid, for sure.

Tim Quinn (39:29):

It really is. And it’s a great culture. Leadership is fantastic. We just got voted one of the top places to work in Atlanta. I wasn’t great where this is the sixth year in a row. We’re on the eight, 5,000 fastest growing private companies. I got to put a little plug out there because Greg, you had mentioned that in a world where a study came out, 60% of cloud projects fail, we’ve done over 250 with fortune 500 companies, not a single one that’s called. So having a trusted advisor to help you with that path and whether it’s Kevin around security and cybersecurity, whether it’s the candidate in terms of having the right cloud strategy, but also have the capability to actually execute the strategy. It’s a very important thing. And that’s kind of what we do. And I don’t know if you guys got it. It’s kind of candid came from, can do and can did. So we’re very focused on execution and getting things done. So,

Scott Luton (40:25):

And we missed that. How did we not put that on the front end, Greg? That that is so neat.

Tim Quinn (40:30):

Catch that kind of stuff, right? Yeah. That’s exactly what it can do and can DIT yeah,

Scott Luton (40:37):

Love it. Well, Kevin, in terms of the agg team, please give our best regards to Mako golden and Kevin Bell and the whole team there. First class, uh, really appreciate just how much work y’all do to not just support the global supply chain industry, but across the business landscape. And, and you aren’t just so dadgum consistent, every guest that shows up it always brings it. So I really appreciate that. Kevin,

Tim Quinn (40:58):

Not to mention the best view in Atlanta. I know Kevin, you’re not in the Atlanta office, but it is the best view in Atlanta. That’s okay.

Scott Luton (41:06):

Good stuff. Well, big, thanks to Tim, Tim Quinn with candid, Kevin coy with Arnold golden Gregory LLP great discussion. I’ve got 18 pages of notes, always enlightening here, Greg. Great discussion, right? Yeah,

Tim Quinn (41:19):

Totally. Yeah. Among other discoveries in this session, and this is just a small thing, but I love these new URLs that define what you do. candid.cloud. I love that. I don’t know why we didn’t think of that sooner. Right? It’s the things in life,

Scott Luton (41:34):

Right? Things in life, for sure. I’m a simple country boy, but really enjoyed the conversation. A lot of learnings here to our audience. Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as we did for similar conversations, interviews like this. Be sure to check us out@supplychainnow.com. And of course, wherever you get your podcasts from subscribe for free money back guarantee on behalf of Scott Luton, Greg white, the whole team here at supply chain. Now challenge our audience. Like we challenge our team every day. Do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed. And with that said, we’ll see you next time on Supply Chain Now.