Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (00:09):
Thanks for joining us here in Windsor for the DSP Leaders World Forum where I'm delighted to be joined by Dennis Hoffman. Dennis is senior vice president and general manager for the telecom systems business at Dell Technologies. Dell being an industry partner of the forum. Dennis, thank you so much for joining us.

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (00:27):
It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (00:29):
So Dennis, how are you finding the forum so far and tell us about some of the takeaways based on the conversations you've had today.

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (00:36):
Today was a very good day. I very much enjoyed myself. It's my first time here, but I think it's a very interesting mix of people. People that are decision makers and influencers, both on the network operations side and the vendor side. The technologists that are in many cases trying to partner with and build an ecosystem with them. A lot of interesting insights. I think it helps us all to understand one another, both the structured events and as well as the side networking. So it's been very good so far.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (01:05):
Dennis, considering that digital transformation is now an imperative for the telecom sector, what do you believe are the main challenges that are delaying actions from CSPs?

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (01:17):
Digital transformation is hard at a headline level. It's just a lot of work. It has three major components. There's an architectural change required, there is a new commercial model required, and in any change program, there's a great deal of people change for certain and it's, I think an effort we've seen happen in multiple vertical markets. Telecom is simply the latest. It's absolutely achievable, but it is a meaningful organization wide commitment to change from the top down.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (01:56):
So at Dell Technologies, how are you helping the industry overcome the hurdles you've mentioned and what is the clear path to growth?

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (02:06):
The clear path to growth, let's take that one second. What we're trying to do is make it easy to consume open, easy to consume disaggregation. The industry is in a transition from one architectural model that is very dependent on a handful of very important suppliers to one that is made up of all of those suppliers, plus many more of us from the technology industry more broadly, and assembling all of that into solutions that you can bet a business on that you can trust. A national network too is complex. So one of the big things we're trying to do is make that process easier through partnerships, through integration of various parts of products into solutions, through advice where we can help and bring some of our expertise from the technology space, working with many different markets to the telecoms industry and in general, just trying to lend our weight and our energy to the effort.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (03:08):
I think growth then going

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (03:09):
Forward. Ah, you wanted me to still do the growth part? Yes. On the growth side, I think the key is we need to find the killer applications and the pursuit of growth is something that we can't snap our fingers and make happen instantaneously. There are applications that must run ultimately in the telecoms network, not in the enterprise data center, not in the public cloud, but in the network. When we find these applications, and I think AI is going to act as a catalyst for finding many of these, then I think we will begin to have growth growth that requires this modern network that we were talking about. But until then, it's going to be hard and it has been hard for years, partly because we haven't found the compelling value proposition for the end buyer. Once we do, we have to build it and we have to build it in a way that actually leverages and makes relevant all of the investments in networks. And then we have to find a way to actually reach the customer and tell the story and do the delivery. So it's an end-to-end business problem, but it will absolutely be facilitated by applications that make the telecoms network more valuable when we find them.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (04:23):
Well, Dennis thank you very much for sharing your insights with us today.

Dennis Hoffman, Dell Technologies (04:26):
Thank you.

Charlotte Kan, TelecomTV (04:27):
That was Dennis Hoffman of Dell Technologies. Thank you for joining us here in Windsor for the DSP Leaders World Forum.