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Mark Asbridge, Head of Product Enablement interview with PrintIT Reseller — Transcript

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0:05[music] I'm Michelle Ryder, editor of
0:07Print IT Reseller. I'm here today with
0:09Mark Espridge, head of business
0:10consultancy at MyQ. Good morning, Mark.
0:14Welcome. Thank you very much for joining
0:16me today.
0:16>> Morning, Michelle. Thank you for the
0:18invite. I'm very excited for this
0:19meeting.
0:20>> So, Mark, you're relatively new to MyQ.
0:22I know your background is in the
0:24reseller community. So, what's it been
0:26like working for a software development
0:28company? So I joined myQ in November
0:30last year. Um and it's been a really
0:32interesting journey moving from a
0:34reseller team uh over into a software
0:36development company. Uh working
0:37alongside some of the greatest people um
0:40within teams has been been fantastic. Um
0:42it's a complete change of role um
0:44working from a local UK company into a
0:47global uh company where we're selling my
0:50queue in all all areas.
0:51>> You mentioned your role is an
0:52international role um and involves
0:54obviously a lot of travel. So what else
0:57does the role involve? How different is
0:59it to what you've you've done
1:00previously?
1:01>> Yeah. So so my my previous role was just
1:03looking at it from a software uh sales
1:05side of things. Whereas now my my roles
1:07incorporate basically all teams in all
1:09departments where what we're doing is is
1:13integrating our product teams, our sales
1:15teams and our marketing together. And
1:18the thing for my is we are a development
1:21house. We have an awful lot of
1:22developers and it's it's converting that
1:25developers into our sales side and into
1:28our marketing side. It's understanding
1:30why those features and functionalities
1:32are important and it's also
1:34understanding the developers need to
1:35understand the real world in the
1:36industry so that we can make sure that
1:38those products are are developed in in
1:40the correct way. So my role is very much
1:43working with all of the teams at myQ
1:45from my head office and joining them all
1:47together and and bringing all these
1:49industry knowledge to develop the
1:51product in the future.
1:52>> So acting almost as a bridge between the
1:55the technical coders, the the clever
1:57guys that do all the clever stuff behind
1:59the scenes, but then translating that
2:01into a product that that's marketable
2:04that the sales team can communicate
2:06about. Um and then obviously to to to
2:09make my Q's products and sales much more
2:12successful. Abs.
2:13>> Absolutely. And and it was one of the
2:14first things that when when I was doing
2:16my introductions uh at Mikey was was my
2:18surname of being the bridge um and
2:20basically bridging those departments and
2:22and and bringing them together um just
2:24to make sure that we're launching the
2:26correct information um and the products
2:28developed in the right way. A recent IDC
2:31report highlighted that myQ is the
2:34fastest growing software solution in the
2:36sector which is great news. Um at the
2:40end of last year I think it was the end
2:42of last year you made some quite
2:44significant upgrades improvements to
2:47your flagship myQX on premise offering.
2:50Um can you talk me through what the
2:52highlights of that release were?
2:54>> Yeah absolutely. So as you mentioned the
2:56IDC report yeah it was fantastic news
2:57for myQ. We are one of the fastest
3:00growing and and we are still continuing
3:02to grow and we're opening up different
3:04regions all of the time. So we're also
3:06opening up AP pack region. We're
3:07expanding quite rapidly. But obviously
3:09with that rapid deployment also becomes
3:11our rapid development of of the product
3:13as well. And we recently launched or end
3:16part of last year and now the terminals
3:18the 10.2 version. The 10.2 two version
3:21has been so many enhancements and and
3:24with product it's all about the the
3:26differences of areas that we we touch we
3:28always talk about being a userentric
3:30product it's all about the user it's all
3:32about the users interactions with the
3:33terminal devices but we're also
3:36understanding it's the interactions with
3:37the IT administrators how do they
3:39configure and on board the product how
3:42do they do the settings how do they get
3:43users in how do they customize it so for
3:46us is it's not only looking at the users
3:48instance it's understanding the
3:50administrators So when we look at from a
3:52server point of view, we've added all
3:53these enhancements where we've made
3:55almost one-click automated installation
3:57processes. You can install myQ in an
4:00environment within matter of minutes. So
4:02the whole enhancements of my was was
4:04bringing that that really simple next
4:07next complete process. So administrators
4:10can onboard the systems incredibly
4:12quickly. Then when we then look at from
4:14the terminals point of view, this is
4:16where the most enhancement for the users
4:18have been. We've recently redone all the
4:20UI, so now it's got a complete new touch
4:23and feel. We've enhanced the actions so
4:25that you're we're hiding certain
4:27features where the where the users can't
4:29edit them or adjust them. We've enabled
4:31think simple things like browsing of
4:33your one drive or sharepoint
4:34destinations. We've then enhanced with
4:37adding a thing called our favorite
4:38actions. And to me, favorite actions is
4:40the absolute key highlight of the
4:42product because previously you always
4:44rely on the administrator to create your
4:46your scan actions, your scan
4:48destinations. But a lot of users have
4:50different folders in their one drives
4:52and their sharepoints. And I'm pretty
4:54sure if you looked at your one drive
4:55compared to my one drive, it might look
4:57slightly different. Everybody's got
4:58their own sort of way of designing files
5:01and structures, which is an
5:03administrator's worst nightmare because
5:05they might have a thousand people asking
5:06them for a thousand different folders
5:08with a thousand different workflows. And
5:10that that's that's just un unreasonable.
5:13But with the favorite actions, now users
5:15can create their own bespoke actions.
5:18What that means is they can go into the
5:19into them to the device, they can add a
5:22button, they can select one drive, they
5:23can select sharepoint and they can
5:25select all the parameters that they want
5:26for that scan action, whether or not
5:28it's color, black and white,
5:29double-sided, PDF, TIFF file, whatever
5:31the administrator allows them to change.
5:34The user can set those settings. Then
5:36the user can then browse their one drive
5:39folders. So for example, imagine that
5:41they were scanning to an in to a finance
5:43team and they wanted to scan into the
5:45invoice folder. they can just select
5:47that as a default for that scan action.
5:49So when they log in, they go to the
5:51favorite actions, they click one button
5:52and they complete their scanning
5:54processes. For us, it's all about that
5:56streamlined user user ability on the
5:58devices. We don't want them spending
6:00time at the machines, but we want the
6:02files in the right location. So with my
6:04Q, it's all about that streamlining of
6:06those processes. And that's some of our
6:08our biggest enhancements that we've
6:09we've made. A lot of things that people
6:11still forget about is our our easy print
6:13that we we launched in 10.1 uh where you
6:16have the ability now to print from your
6:18one drive, print from shareepoint, print
6:19from Google Drive. Everending number of
6:22features. We're also enhancing all of
6:24our security. So we've recently added
6:26obviously for the new uh uh Windows
6:29protected print. So we now have native
6:31IPS printing. H there's so many features
6:33I could kind of go on about for the for
6:35the rest of the day, but there are lots
6:38of enhancements that we we've done in
6:3910.2. 2, but for for Mikey, we're always
6:43we always talk about being an agile
6:44development. So, it isn't like here's
6:4610.2 and that's what it is until the
6:48next version. This is where we are
6:52today, but we're now coordinating the
6:53next sprint runs. So, we're talking
6:55about how we can make more enhancements
6:57for the next patch version release. I
7:00think what I loved, we we did um an
7:02interview for the magazine a few months
7:04ago and it was all about my Q makes
7:07personalization personal. Um, and you've
7:10touched on that in terms of making the
7:12users's experience more personal,
7:14enabling them to curate their own tasks
7:17or their own look and feel on their own
7:19user interface, which is a huge step
7:22change away from, as you say, IT
7:24administrators conform to the company's
7:26policies and the end users have sort of
7:28got to work around that. So, that that's
7:30quite interesting.
7:31>> Abs. Absolutely. I mean, for me, it's
7:34just making everyone's life simpler and
7:35easier. Um but but we've got a lot of
7:38tasks that are really important
7:39especially IT um if we can minimize the
7:43impact in IT for an installation that
7:45just that's just perfect. Users are
7:47happy IT administrators are happy
7:50>> and I think we we've also need to touch
7:52on the the cloud native myq Roger app
7:56platform. I'm not I'm not sure how how
7:58we position that. There are a couple of
7:59versions of that though, aren't there?
8:01What what are the differences between
8:03the the the different versions?
8:05Absolutely. So, yes, you're completely
8:07right that we have the MyQ Roger native
8:09cloud application and and we we've
8:12designed it in two slightly different
8:13ways. We have a a a personalized account
8:17and then you then have your normal
8:18standard corporate account. So, the
8:20corporate is more for your reseller uh
8:22environment. If we just talk about the
8:24personal account to start off with
8:26because the personal account is designed
8:28for people um that that that might not
8:30be a part of a business. They just be
8:32you and you and I ourselves where we
8:34want to do some scanning and we want to
8:36do some auto capturing and rotating and
8:38scan to one drive and bits and pieces
8:40like this. What that's designed for is
8:42anybody can download the Mikey Roger app
8:44from from the play store or the Google
8:46store and it's recently had over 1
8:48million downloads. So it's a wellused um
8:51application. The users can register with
8:53their own personalized account details
8:55whether it's their own personal Gmail or
8:56one drive account. And the idea is that
8:59they can then complete the scanning of
9:01receipts themselves because obviously
9:03today's day and age we're moving more
9:05and more to a paperless environment. And
9:07the idea of the the Mikey Roger platform
9:09is it allows you to to digitize your
9:12documents for free
9:14>> on the fly wherever you are wherever you
9:16are. So you can be in a complete hybrid
9:17working environment anywhere as long as
9:19you got internet connection you can
9:21start capturing your your documents. And
9:24the thing is it's not just uh taking a
9:25picture. It's got clever enhancements
9:27where it will start uh auto rotating and
9:30and correcting the angles, correcting
9:32the balances, but we've taken that to
9:34our next level because
9:37we've also enhanced these AI
9:39capabilities of it within the
9:41personalized area. The idea of that is
9:43you can now link that into chat GPT
9:46because a lot of people are now scanning
9:47in documents, but they might want to
9:48translate it. They might want to extract
9:50key information. you might want to
9:52summarize what that document is. So
9:54rather than having to read a 20page
9:56document, you might just say just give
9:58me the key points, summarize it, or give
10:00me the theme of what this document's
10:01about. So with the MyU Roger
10:03application, not only can you can you
10:04take pictures and auto rotate and
10:06capture a lot of its pieces, you can now
10:08also ask it for an AI response of what
10:11that document is. Um, for me, the
10:13translation bit, I think, is is is so
10:15key. Um, especially for my role when
10:17we're working internationally, we need
10:19to have that that translation piece. uh
10:21part of it and it's all free download
10:24from from the MyQu Roger Play Store. Um
10:26obviously if you start leveraging the AI
10:28and then there is subscription model
10:29that's built into the product but you
10:32can use it completely for free.
10:33>> And how does the the corporate version
10:36differ?
10:37>> So the corporate version is designed to
10:39be in this hybrid world where you have
10:41your MFDs that are registered on the
10:43same platform. So your users the the
10:46app's still completely the same. It just
10:48depends on whether or not you're logging
10:49into a personal or whether or not you're
10:51logging into your your corporate
10:52account. And then the idea of the the
10:55solution there is you can be in your
10:57office working environment. So your
10:59standard follow me print scanning
11:02reporting everything you would imagine
11:03from a standardized print management
11:05system obviously native cloud but it
11:08then gives you this capability to then
11:10use the mobile phone. So you have this
11:12complete hybrid working solution
11:14wherever you are in the world. If you're
11:16in an office with a with an MFD or on
11:19your mobile phone, it's the same system.
11:22Now, for me, the key points for that is
11:24from an administrative point of view, it
11:26have only got to manage one platform.
11:28Regardless whether or not you're doing
11:30uh entry synchronization, you're doing
11:32scan to one drive, scan to Google Drive.
11:35As an administrator, you're managing one
11:37platform. Whether or not you use on an
11:39MFD, or whether you use it on a mobile
11:41phone, from the platform's point of
11:43view, it's the same actions. So this
11:45gives the complete flexibility for your
11:48users in a in a standard office
11:49environment or it could be in a
11:51healthcare or education. It could be any
11:53any kind of industry but they want to go
11:55native cloud and they want to be able to
11:57complete the scanning the scanning and
11:59printing processes. But it's it's key
12:02when we look at these products is
12:04looking around the security aspect of it
12:06and for my security is really really
12:08key. So when we start talking about
12:10where does data travel, we've got a lot
12:13of flexibility within the Moy Roger
12:14platform of where that data gets sent.
12:17So for example, if you've got highly
12:19confidential data, but you're in a zero
12:21trust network environment, you want to
12:23keep your data in your own personalized
12:25one drive and that's what we're able to
12:27do with my rather than sending off to my
12:30cloud servers. You're able to keep that
12:32data in your own personal one drive. So
12:35your data never leaves your environment.
12:37And there's some really key points for
12:39for Mikey Roger and and how it
12:40differentiates against other products
12:42because we want to make sure that the
12:44users data is kept secure in their own
12:46personalized environments at all of
12:48those times.
12:48>> I think now in this day and age with
12:50with the increased risk of cyber attack,
12:53you've only got to look in in recent
12:55weeks the headlines Marks and Spencer's
12:57Co-op and Harrods three massive huge
13:00household names were, you know, fell
13:03victim to to cyber attacks. So I think
13:05security is is front of mind for
13:07organizations of all sizes. Um and
13:10keeping that data protected and secure
13:14and within an environment you want it to
13:16be whether that's for sovereignty
13:19reasons or GDPR compliance or indeed
13:22zero trust as you've touched on that you
13:24want to keep it on your network rather
13:26than in in the the public cloud. So
13:29that's that's really important to point
13:31out
13:32>> and I always look at it from smaller
13:34companies that formemes they they really
13:38do struggle with with security because
13:40they don't have these teams of
13:42developers and teams of security
13:44consultants they can rely on because
13:46they're they're expensive
13:47>> and many don't have in-house resource IT
13:50resource or extensive IT resource and
13:53they're reliant on on their partners on
13:55on their their suppliers their providers
13:57their print providers
13:59to help them shore up security um as
14:02part of implementing a wider print or IT
14:05infrastructure.
14:06>> Absolutely. And that's where we're
14:07really lucky that we're having the teams
14:09that we've got um with from our
14:11developers are all highly trained,
14:12highly qualified security teams that can
14:15develop these applications and these
14:17processes that meet meet those
14:19requirements. Um so customers put that
14:21trust within us to meet their
14:23requirements. So I think you've touched
14:25on the hot topic of the moment over and
14:29above security AI. Um so what's next on
14:32the road map for my Q and in particular
14:36how are you going to leverage AI to make
14:37it even better?
14:38>> Absolutely and it's the question
14:40everybody always asks is AI. AI is the
14:42the buzzwords for for all of the
14:44industry at the moment um for for very
14:46good reasons and my answer back is
14:48always we need to look in two different
14:50ways. How does my Q use AI? How can we
14:54use AI for our partners? And how do we
14:56then use AI for our customers? And I
14:58think it's always a people merge all of
15:01these things together. And I always like
15:03to differentiate them and understand how
15:05we're using it and why we're using it.
15:08Because what's the point of using AI for
15:10just AI sake? Um I've seen some articles
15:13where people have now have an AI
15:15toothbrush. Why do I need an AI
15:17toothbrush? It because it's the
15:19buzzwords of the industry. If we're
15:21implementing AI, it needs to be for
15:22beneficial reasons. So if we look at it
15:25from from from how my Q is is utilizing
15:28it internally, of course, we're using it
15:31for content creation, content writing,
15:34um because it speeds up those processes.
15:36For for us, it's understanding
15:39the the benefits of utilizing that to
15:41create it quickly and efficiently. We're
15:43also using it for for some of the image
15:45creations as well because again we can
15:48create rapid content a part of utilizing
15:50the AI process. So when we start looking
15:52at marketing and LinkedIn everybody in
15:54the industry is now starting to utilize
15:56it for for those processes.
15:59Then we then look at started to utilize
16:00it for our partners. So on our our
16:04documentation website we've had an AI
16:06chatbot that we're utilizing for I think
16:08it must be about three or four years
16:10now. We've had that integrated and the
16:12idea there is is allowing the users or
16:15the partners to ask technical questions
16:17directly into our documentation site
16:20because it's such an an asset of
16:22resource information. Sometimes trying
16:24to find exactly where the article is is
16:27is is within the documentation. Now
16:29they're able just to ask the chatbot and
16:31they could say maybe how do I set up one
16:33drive? How do I set up cost centers?
16:35they can ask you all of these features
16:37and then what it will then do is will
16:38give back a a highle overview of of the
16:41documentation but it'll also give you
16:43those links. So I use it quite a lot
16:45mainly because I can't bother to go
16:46through the the articles. I would just
16:48much rather ask the chatbot and he just
16:49gives me the direct link but again it's
16:51all about being that that efficiencies
16:53process. So again, when we're using AI,
16:55it's why what's the benefit of utilizing
16:58it? And this is for speeding up the the
17:01responses for our partners. And equally,
17:03sometimes our customers go on to there
17:05because they want to change a setting
17:06and they want to understand the impact
17:08of that. Again, they might not be
17:10completely familiar with my use
17:12documentation. They can just use an AI
17:14chatbot, ask it a question, and it takes
17:15them to that information. So for me,
17:17that's really, really important. I think
17:19that ties in quite nicely with the
17:21earlier messaging around making it easy
17:24for users, making it user centric. Um,
17:27and again, if you're not technically
17:31capable or, you know, a little bit
17:32lacking in that department like I am,
17:34it's great to be able to go into
17:36something and say, how do I set up
17:37SharePoint? How do I scan to my one
17:40drive? um and have that information come
17:43back to you in in seconds, I presume
17:45near real time. Yeah. Rather than have
17:47to maybe email somebody and wait there's
17:50a delay or do some searching which takes
17:52time or phone somebody. Um it's that
17:55real time instant access to information.
17:58So I can see there's a real value ad.
18:00>> And what are our next steps of how we're
18:03going to make that even better is how
18:05that will then integrate into the
18:06partner portal. Um, so obviously there
18:09there's teams out there of of of massive
18:11sizes uh of OEMs which they've got big
18:14teams where they they create a number of
18:16support tickets or questions u and
18:19basically what we're looking at doing
18:20now is integrating the the bot on the
18:22partner side of the of the product. What
18:24that will then enable them to do is
18:26they'll be able to search all of their
18:28partner questions and answers. So again,
18:31it's trying to take that that next step
18:34because we have a a fantastic
18:35documentation, but then we people always
18:37have questions and it's how you can then
18:40link those questions that that part has
18:42asked and how they can then use AI to
18:44then quickly and efficiently extract
18:46information from their own personalized
18:48area. So again, that's the next step of
18:51enhancements that we're doing for our
18:53partners. And then the last question
18:55that you're going to ask is how are we
18:57looking that within product? because
18:59that's to be honest that's what most
19:01people are looking at. So for me we we
19:04mentioned Mikey Roger with his AI uh
19:06chat GBT scanning and that that to me is
19:09is the biggest is the biggest point um
19:11where the fact that the users through
19:13the mobile app can automatically scan so
19:15every assessment what are you doing next
19:18it's in the product now it's there you
19:20can utilize it you can subscribe to it
19:22and you can then start using that that
19:24AI scanning then when we then look at
19:26the myQX processes this is something
19:29that we are in the process of developing
19:31and and reviewing that that structure
19:33because my Q's scanning capabilities has
19:36been amazing and it's been industry
19:38leading for for a number of years but
19:40we're now starting to see this whole AI
19:42scanning process that's coming up where
19:43we need to do something a little bit
19:45more with it. So what we're starting to
19:47do now is looking at the future of how
19:49we're going to develop those scanning
19:50processes and how we're going to capture
19:52those additional data and and utilizing
19:55AI for that because AI is here to stay
20:00and equally why do users want to do
20:01something that there's going to take
20:02time for that process. So, it's
20:05something that that is on our road map
20:06that we're we're currently reviewing and
20:08we will be then launching information
20:10about that whole AI scanning process and
20:13those enhancements we're going to make
20:14onto it because for me I mentioned
20:16earlier on about translations, document
20:19summaries, redactions, extractions,
20:23that's what people want in a product and
20:25and as much as we can do it now, we need
20:28a more streamlined and easier way to
20:30complete those tasks.
20:31>> Thanks Mark. That's been really
20:32interesting particularly in terms of
20:34what's to come in terms of AI. Um I know
20:37you've got an event in the autumn Mikey
20:39showcase coming up. I suspect there'll
20:41be a lot more to announce then but can
20:43you maybe share a little bit more now?
20:46>> Absolutely. So a lot of people are
20:48asking those questions is the MyQ
20:50Showtime event that's coming up in in
20:51September. Um, it is going to be a
20:54fantastic event where we've invited all
20:55of our partners and OEMs from around the
20:57world. And at that event, they're going
21:00to get a little sneak pe preview of what
21:02is to come with my QX. It's going to be
21:05our next version that we're going to be
21:07to be releasing. Obviously, 10.2 we've
21:10talked about. Uh, it's here, people are
21:12utilizing it, but we've now got people
21:14developing that that next version. Um,
21:17for us, there's not too much that we can
21:19say about it at the moment. Um, but
21:21we're looking at how that can
21:23transition. Everybody's talking about
21:25the cloud, moving to the cloud. MyQ is
21:28obviously working with the cloud
21:29environment with myQ Roger when we have
21:30done for a number of years, but we're
21:32also looking at how we can then leverage
21:34certain cloud services within the MyQ
21:37platform.
21:39Really looking at how we can move this
21:40into a hybrid uh environment. uh and I
21:43know at the moment we already have this
21:45hybrid working environment with private
21:46cloud but it's how it will then change
21:49uh to be this native cloud product and
21:51how it can then connect utilizing all
21:54these different services. So there's an
21:56awful lot to come from my Q. Um it isn't
21:59just a this is where we've stopped at.
22:01This is just starting the journey of our
22:03next phase where we will then be
22:05leveraging this native cloud within
22:06within the product. But at the Showtime
22:08event, we're all very excited to be
22:10showing this off. uh people will be able
22:12to come and see all of the products that
22:14we've got available, get sneak peeks
22:16into the future, as well as at the same
22:18time speak directly to all the
22:19developers, all the sales team. Um
22:22personally, it's an event that I'm super
22:23looking forward to.
22:24>> Mark, thank you so much for joining me
22:26today and thanks for giving us a great
22:28insight into what Mike is doing and will
22:31be doing. I look forward to finding out
22:33more after the event, after the Mikey
22:36Showtime event. Thank you so much once
22:38again for being here.
22:39>> Thanks, Michelle, for the invite. I've
22:40really enjoyed our conversation today to
22:42give you some insights into my queue.

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