IGEL Weekly: Pride in Partnership: Introducing the Next Chapter of IGEL Ready

In waving goodbye to our hardware business, shifting to a subscription model, and bringing to market our ground-breaking COSMOS platform, IGEL is setting the course towards a promising future that is rich with innovation. The narrative unfolding within IGEL Ready mirrors this pattern of advancement and transformation.

The growing IGEL Ready ecosystem, comprised of the industry’s best hardware and software partners, is a point of pride and offers a strong foundation for future growth and innovation. As we continue to down this path with our 130+ IGEL Ready partners, IGEL is optimizing the program to align with our collective goals and objectives more closely.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

Transcript

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Andy Whiteside: Hello, everyone! Welcome to Episode 82 of I Jo weekly and hosting Andy White Side. I've got to Chris Feeney with me. Chris is one of the sales engineers. Solution architects working on the Channel side at Igl probably doesn't need an introduction at this point. But I do it anyway. Chris, how's it going?

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Chris Feeney: As you know.

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Chris Feeney: and they're North Carolina. We'll get the humidity, but it's been cool in the morning, unusually cool, even late into June. And

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Chris Feeney: but this year, and now it's not the humidity arrived this weekend. So

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Andy Whiteside: yeah, but I I I've got this jeep, and I bought. I put a top on it. No, we nimini Bikini top, and I was up there last night.

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Andy Whiteside: but making some a justice to I was I was out there 5 min, and I was just sweating. It was so hot.

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Andy Whiteside: Yeah, it's humid.

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Chris Feeney: But but yeah, it's arrived. And it's interesting. I was like I was

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Chris Feeney: on the road quite a bit this earlier this year up until about mid May. And now it's kind of like slow down. But just in time for summer vacations so

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Chris Feeney: good not long enough it was, probably just 4 or 5 days, but it worked out well. My daughter came back from a internship, and so we she was overseas, and so we were able to get her from Chicago. When she came back into this into the States down there, and

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Chris Feeney: that was a nice gave her a couple of days of.

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Chris Feeney: you know, recovery, relaxation, and then

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on to the next.

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Chris Feeney: you know, get back in the truck and drive home. So. But it was South Carolina, you know. Place you love

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Chris Feeney: Charleston area, and and it's hard to hard to leave that area in general.

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Andy Whiteside: Yeah, I I plan to spend some portion of the next piece of my life down there. I don't know. 1020 weeks a year. It's awesome.

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Andy Whiteside: Well, you brought a a blog. Let me give you the title of it's pride in partnership introducing the next chapter of Ij. Already was written by Vivia Sager on June twelfth of this year, 2,023. You know I did not know what you were going to bring to cover today. But I

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Andy Whiteside: I love the fact that we're talking about the Ij already program, because if you want to.

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Andy Whiteside: If you want to elevate I. G, and and show the the differentiation between all the other thinner OS products out there. And I'm specifically leaving out the word thing client, because that's a big misnomer these days. It's not the the hardware is the hardware. It's the operating system is what makes it a a smarter, fitter, thinner, better client for delivered computing. It's the ideal ready program

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Andy Whiteside: that really says the most about where I jail is a leader in the space, and that you don't have to go into it, hey? I wonder how I'm going to solve this or this? And this? Is it going to be supported. You go right to the ideal ready, page.

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Andy Whiteside: and you'll you'll have your answer without having to guess.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah, no. And then then the the new logo design. They actually unveiled it at the National and disrupt. And then it kinda highlights.

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Chris Feeney: really, you know what you were just saying it. At the center is the operating system, but around it are the key partnerships that have been with Igl for a while, but also

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Chris Feeney: some of the emerging things that are beginning to to happen, especially as we begin shifting towards cosmos and the OS 12 platform.

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Andy Whiteside: I'm doing a little test here I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to chat, gpt.

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Andy Whiteside: I'm gonna log in and I'm gonna ask you to tell me about the Ij already program.

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Chris Feeney: That's give it a shot. I've been trying some out. It's actually been quite surprised with the results I get.

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Andy Whiteside: I'll see what we did.

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Andy Whiteside:  of course I've taken this on a little little caveat here. So

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Andy Whiteside: fill some live

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Chris Feeney: well, we've had a logo change So that's that's that's a new it it slight change. And so

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Chris Feeney: let's say with Chat Gp, that Gpt has to say

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Chris Feeney: no one your words or less. So what I do is tell me about the ideal ready program and 200 words or less. Let's see what we get.

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Andy Whiteside: I mean, we don't have to think we just ask the stupid thing.

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Andy Whiteside: The Ij already programs, partnership initiative lost by igl technology leading provider next to endpoint aims to create a collaborative ecosystem keyword ecosystem of technology partners who can seamlessly integrate their software applications with idl endpoints. I don't have 3D. More.

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Andy Whiteside: What that first paragraph said.

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Andy Whiteside: which I don't know where it got that maybe it took it off the website or partners, website, or whatever. But that's what it already is. And the fact that I gel knows this and has invested in that is

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Andy Whiteside: well, it's it's it's it's leading in our space

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Chris Feeney: watching that happen live. That's pretty cool. It's It is interesting. Right? So yeah, I'm sure it pulled sources from the Internet websites, whatever. But yeah, that that first paragraph summary, really kind of nails it?

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Andy Whiteside: Why, I haven't read this fourth paragraph. Yeah. But I see how it starts. It says, for ideal customers, which is what's important here the ideal ready program extends their software choices empowering them to leverage a wide range of verified and capable applications on their Ig managed endpoint. It simplifies the deployment and management of third-party software enhancing the user experience and productivity. I don't know where it got that.

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Andy Whiteside: but that's exactly what my brain thought, but probably couldn't say that succinctly.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah, no, definitely the word smithing on that particular paragraph sentence, whatever is, is very well done, and that really sums it up it. It it really is about

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Chris Feeney: if we want to go with plug and play, making sure that it just it just works right.

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Chris Feeney: obviously, there's some configuration that goes on depending on what you're trying to set up or enable. But once all that squared away, if if if needed. just

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Andy Whiteside: plug and play. And that's what you want. The type of partnerships that we have in the system. So we work with other thin client software providers and windows, and even windows. I mean the chances of it working are. Yes, but it won't be because Windows said, yes, this will work. It'll be because the ecosystem vendor says it'll work and then there's other.

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Andy Whiteside: Then thinner soft software is based on Linux. And their answer to that question is, yeah, it should work. Go ahead. You try it, you figured out. Let us know that's not good enough.

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Chris Feeney: No, and that's I mean, that's

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Chris Feeney: it is not good enough. And in this program, designed to kind of help. you know, have a a process where somebody can come in. And

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Chris Feeney: and usually it's customer driven. They have something they would like you to work with, and that always helps. Sometimes it's more proactive. Kinda we we since the market opportunity and let's collaborate here together.

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Chris Feeney: and as that happens, you get customer feedback on what you end up doing or not doing, or whatever you know, from a roadmap or feature supportability thing. And that's still ongoing like. For example.

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Chris Feeney: Citrix is our longest, probably vendor in this type of program, and we still are adding up a feature functionality to

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Chris Feeney: in collaboration with Citrix and their workspace. App.

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Chris Feeney: you know, I think a lot of that is driven by parity with the windows version of it. But it's still ongoing after

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Andy Whiteside: 20 years, and that windows growth on the Citrix Workspace App side that bleeds over into Linux and others. That's all customer driven asks. I mean, they're maybe they're coming up with some things that people didn't think about. But the same time most of that's coming from customers to hey? I like this. I could do more with it if it would just do this.

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Andy Whiteside: They make that work shows up on the Linux Workspace app that ends up in igl because I jail is adopting the the citrix workspace app for Linux. And next thing you know, one example of how this ecosystem comes together.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah, well, it's it's also an

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Chris Feeney: a Testament to the growth of Ij and becoming more comfortable on the endpoint.

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Chris Feeney: you know. And you see this with any platform that decide that that ends up growing, you know, and becoming a ubiquitous if you will, but

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Chris Feeney: that's the right word. But

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Chris Feeney:  As more people start using it, it's going to drive adoption of

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Chris Feeney: new things right? And

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Chris Feeney:  you know. And we're the workspace. We've talked about this where the Workspaces are being derivative, delivered from.

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Chris Feeney: you know, from a browser, from an actual, a client that has peripheral support for whatever

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Chris Feeney: you know. But the endpoint itself. the OS is is simplified. I just want it to work, and that and provide that native experience at the end of the day. So.

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Chris Feeney: but yeah, there's there's 2 levels to this program, I think. in the first section of this kind of highlighting, this Chris, before you go there, does does Viv explain why the program needed to evolve in this block?

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Chris Feeney: I think it was right in the first paragraph there. we've, you know, at this point completely exited our hardware business. the only thing we have left as far as I go. Hardware is the whatever it was left in inventory.

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Chris Feeney: which is beginning to, you know. Get lower. We've shifted already last year, a year ago, we shifted to the subscription model, which is now the

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Chris Feeney: main thing. But

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Chris Feeney: and then, with the onslaught of launching the cosmos platform. Really. Kinda

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Chris Feeney: there was an opportunity to focus on sort of

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Chris Feeney:  what we saw. We had. Some of these were legacy partnerships. I would say that maybe signed in But now we're kind of shifting

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Chris Feeney: and the focus is becoming more on that. OS, and and clearly, a a right up front is, what is that? OS live on an operating a piece of hardware. What are those?

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Chris Feeney: And then, as as cosmos there is a shift there because we're moving to an app model So I think all that happening right, we wanted. They wanted to kind of

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Chris Feeney: make some changes there to kind of highlight, you know, who is who you know, as far as OS. 11 as well as OS. 12, and that's kinda

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Chris Feeney: what the shift was about.

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Andy Whiteside: yeah. Okay. So she goes through and list out some bullets around. What's changing. The first one is new. Ij already program levels tell us what that means.

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Chris Feeney: So we had previous. low. Is this really just ideal ready? And I do already certified? I think the the lower end

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Chris Feeney: idol ready. is more like a self certification type thing. We give you some information how to go through and do a self check of of how to work with Ig. If it, whatever it might be.

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Chris Feeney: That you already certified, is, you know, you're working more directly with Igl and our hardware team. For example, the software team.

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Chris Feeney: you know, it's

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Chris Feeney: you get. There's more involved. But at that part of the program, right? We're you're working directly with idols engineering team on a regular basis and also on a roadmap of things. So

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Chris Feeney: I think it used to be 3 levels when it first launched and it switched to 2. And now these are the the, the Re emerge to 2 versions of the program.

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Andy Whiteside: Yeah.

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Andy Whiteside: Okay. I got, I got, I got to rewind a bit, and something you said which is right. But I want to clarify for our listeners. The hardware business only exist in 2 places that I know of. Well, hold on. It only exist in one place that I know of, which is the Ud pocket. Right? The Udp is the only hardware you guys

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Andy Whiteside: still actually produce. Is that true?

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So that's there's also a change there. technically, yes, that's not going away. There'll be an option there for the Ud pocket.

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Chris Feeney:  I think, the where it's either being manufactured from maybe the same place. But how it's going to be available

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Chris Feeney: improvised, but but that will be an option. You know where

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Chris Feeney: you know it'll be an ideal device, like, where's the CD pocket? I've got one right here, for example.

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Chris Feeney:  But

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Chris Feeney: but yeah, that that'll still be the technically the ideal hardware, if you will. outside of the the partnerships we've got.

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Chris Feeney: So that's definitely not going away

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Andy Whiteside: like it in computing, and others that we'll keep making, they'll be making hardware that has igl pre installed on it. So the hardware options there, it's just not from idl. Specifically.

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Chris Feeney: some of probably already knew we shipping from the factory now.

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Chris Feeney: Pre loaded with igl. And in many cases there's certain skews that you can order, and they come with idle a version of Ijo, whatever it might be that has already been certified to work on that platform.

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Chris Feeney:  well, or and certainly the option of shipping without an OS on it. but if that happens, you need to make sure, like.

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Chris Feeney: okay, this is the limit of the laptop I've got, or lg, what version of Ij should install on this one. And that's where you can go and kind of check and confirm which one it was. I guess officially qualified on if you want to use that word.

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Chris Feeney: So

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Andy Whiteside: okay, so going back to the the bullets here, first one's a new program. It's gonna have 2 levels ready and certified ready. So let me make sure I understood what you said there. So Betty means. I just given the vendor ecosystem vendor a list of things to do to self

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Andy Whiteside: identify

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Andy Whiteside: as ready. And then. So what is what is ready? Certified me.

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Chris Feeney: so in that situation? your. It's a more. It's an advanced level of the program where you're working directly the vendor as well as with ideal engineering.

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Chris Feeney: on either it could be a hardware level or software level. There's there's 2 different sort of categories there. and also

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Chris Feeney: there's a

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Chris Feeney: notation on the software side that if there's an app that's going into the portal, there's some collaboration there on helping get that app built in such a way that it's, you know, been Igl approved, or whatever like that. So

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Chris Feeney: it's hard to hard to read that graphic. By the way, I need to zoom in on that with my eyes.

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Andy Whiteside: So it says, software integrated into, I gel firmware.

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Chris Feeney: So that's oh, the OS 11, for example.

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Andy Whiteside: and then published on the app portal. So software integration into Idl firm where new? Okay? So you got the integration into the firmware, which isn't these days very often, if at all, that would be

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Chris Feeney: at this point, anything going into us 11 would probably be very little, it would be more focused on OS 12.

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Andy Whiteside: So from the software side, it's all about the app portal and being certified to go into the portal because we don't want bad stuff going in there. We don't want stuff to do more. We don't. Malicious stuff, it says. Device tested in house

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Andy Whiteside: hardware identification with Ig OS enhanced co-marketing and business development opportunities and joint innovative solutions, and competitive advantage.

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Chris Feeney: right? So definitely more of a a collaborative partnership, not just on the technical side, but also on the sales and marketing of

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Chris Feeney: this devices and their availability and and feature functionality. And there's quite a bit, yeah, would it be fair to say that the first one is 100 free and the second one costs money? So somebody's gonna invest the money, whether it's Ij or the partner, or both. there's cost to both to entry obviously the one on the right. The ready certified is more involved in terms of commitment. I don't know what that is, but

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Andy Whiteside:  but it but they are. There is a cost there. Yeah. So all right. So the next bullet goes back to the app portal. Start. It's it's a faster path to I's already certified. And when I, when I see that first thing I think about is there? The the path to get into the app portal is probably much faster than the path to get into the firmware from the previous days. So it's probably a win win for both parties.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah, definitely. you know what? What I've seen in my tenure is an integration might start with a custom partition, for example, an example of that would be liquidware.

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Chris Feeney: They used to have a thing where we do the custom partition that would report analytics into their their system that got integrated into Igl 3 something years ago. I think it was at the beginning of 2,020 now.

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Chris Feeney: And it was just plug and play at that point. It was there, so that

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Chris Feeney: how long it took to go from there to actually in the firmware. I don't know exactly what it was, but

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Chris Feeney: but yeah, a lot of it is figuring that out and then getting into the cycle and the release cycle, the testing on that. And eventually it you you target a version where it's going to be available.

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Chris Feeney: going forward. That model obviously shifts to the app portal.

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Andy Whiteside: Yeah. Okay. And then refresh to branding is probably the third. Maybe not the most important bullet. But you know, as somebody who thinks marketing is key to everything.

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Chris Feeney: There's something there for sure.

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Chris Feeney:  with regard to this program, especially if

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Chris Feeney: whether it's piece of hardware or it's this, the software and that showcase. So you can. Here's an example of an Lg all in one, for example, that is now

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Chris Feeney:  with that new logo. Yeah.

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Andy Whiteside: I mean, look, it's important that we identify these things and do the process, but also market where things stand. So I guess the in the in the showcase where you guys show on your website, who's who's certified, ready and who's ready?

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Andy Whiteside: this gives you a chance to elevate, or, you know, draw attention to those that that have gone through with the program at the highest levels.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah, I think I look at, I was like, there's if you look at where we started with these hardware vendors in terms of the

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Chris Feeney: we. We had already had a long list of devices that we had.

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Chris Feeney: We could repurpose or had it gone through some official or some artificial

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Chris Feeney: validation? But since that's taken on the last couple of years, I mean, if you go there now, and you're looking. I mean you'll be blown away by how many Lenovo devices or Lg devices, or HP, I mean, there's a variety of different options.

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Chris Feeney: all based on different types of use cases right from mobile, thin clients with laptop form factors to the all in 1 24 inch, like you see here, designed for specific industries in some cases. So

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Chris Feeney: knowing that depending on your industry right, there's options whether you take what you had, and you leverage those for a while, and then

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Chris Feeney: they eventually go away to you know.

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Chris Feeney: we're gonna focus on this particular vendor. And and you know, we'll get 6, 7 years out of this device potentially whatever.

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Chris Feeney: So right?

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Andy Whiteside: okay. So we've pretty much covered the article. And and the idea, Chris, I'm gonna put you on the spot here tell me about a ecosystem vendor that was not idle ready before that you engaged that I jailed in, and the vendor both stepped up

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Andy Whiteside: to get certified. Get on the ready list, and how that helped the customer.

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Chris Feeney: that's a great question. I think

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Chris Feeney: I'll just go with one of my favorite examples. I I helped a little bit, but not not tremendously, but

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Chris Feeney: the headset right. This epochs set up right.

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Chris Feeney: We had. I first met these folks in 2121. So they were early part of the program, and I had heard that they were. I do already certified over like that. And so I engage, like, okay, how did your stuff work? We've got this

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Chris Feeney: go in check box. But how does all that work? And so

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Chris Feeney:  I kind of forced the conversation with their product management team and ours, because there was a lack of information on how to piece it all together. And and so we kind of went down that path, and then that turned into

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Chris Feeney: we were on a training call internally and said, Can we live literally set this up right now, because I'd like to be able to tell the whole story right? Because Epo has not just great hardware. They can update their hardware firmware, or whatever, just like I, Joel, can remotely.

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Chris Feeney: So

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Chris Feeney: on that call we went through, and I had an instance of their management stuff set up, and I had my stuff set up, and they walked me through. How to

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Chris Feeney: do that. And it was. It was collaborative in nature. Everybody kind of learned from the experience. And then we kind of documented how it's it works. And

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Chris Feeney: you know, it's it's plug and play it literally. It's it's, you know, once you have that set up.

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Chris Feeney: you know, you can push out updates to their stuff. And you know, good to go. So that's just one example, one of my favorites, because I I love their stuff. It's it's they. They they got a ton of great

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Chris Feeney: use cases with different headsets and stuff. So that's that's one. And I hope that I don't know where they are on this new certified program. they are. Oh, they already are. I see they're at the bottom of the logo so

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Andy Whiteside: well. He he poses a great example. You pause. He pose how we want to say it. They they. They're a great example of somebody who, I, Jo, and the vendor. In this case the the ecosystem vendor. They both understand the value in making this work and work better, and work natively and and and work in such a way. The end user experience goes up right away. that's that's a great.

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Andy Whiteside: That's a great example of the programming. And I, we have tons of customers we interact with. And they say, Well, I can't use a virtual desktop, or both because of the echo. And it's like, did you even try anything other than the cheapest headset you could get like? No, we just. We bought the cheapest headset like, well, okay, that's the problem. You can't just go by the

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Chris Feeney: oh, there's an example. We had a

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Chris Feeney: customer. I was on vacation. This thing blew up right? You get somebody sends an email. And it's like, What is the issue? Well, it turns out. And they didn't.

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Chris Feeney: They didn't describe what the problem actually was, it was they were using Bluetooth whatever, but using air pods to try to then have a teams or a zoom call like

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Chris Feeney: they didn't really think to tell the end user that that's probably not the best option.

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Chris Feeney: you know.

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Chris Feeney: and it would be very simple just to plug and play one of these devices in, and then you're all set, and you're you're good to go. But so

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Chris Feeney: yeah, probably some education there on, on on several sides. But you know this is why Apple is not part of necessarily the program. But E. Foss, if somebody else is because it's designed to work and have that. You know you.

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Andy Whiteside: Yeah, that I'm going to recommend this thing. And you know we already know that it's going to work that particular device or headset, or whatever software integration. So and if it doesn't work, you pos the pause. I, J, are both gonna step up and make it work because they said it would work. And it's been certified. Maybe you got a corner used case. That's unique. And

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Chris Feeney: you know, we told you it's gonna work. Now it's gonna figure out why it's not working. Chances are it's gonna work. But if it doesn't, we're gonna help you fix it. So that's a great example.

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Andy Whiteside: Well, Chris, I know

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Andy Whiteside: Well, I I love talking about the Ij already program. It's when I do my presentations. It's one of the things I highlight the most, because it really does tell a story kind of like jet chat. P. Chat. Gpt said, it's a it's it's good for the vendors. It's good for the customers. User experience is important.

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Andy Whiteside:  you should post that response that it typed up.

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Chris Feeney: Yeah. Well, just so you should post that response that chat wrote up. when you put out your

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Chris Feeney: posting on the you know I I asked Chat Vp to that. The ideal ready program. And this is what it said. Now listen to the podcast so I'll I'll post it on social media. That's that's a great one. We should probably ask it to write a song for us to. I've seen that, too, that that that's always interesting. What comes out of chat. Gpt.

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Andy Whiteside: yeah, that could be fun.

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Andy Whiteside: all right. Chris. Well, it's good talking to you again. And I'm sure in the community community, podcast I think, are going really strong with Barry. And I think maybe you're joining some of those. But you know, we'll do another corporate one here in a few weeks. Take care.