Liongard, AI, and MSP Visibility at ZTW (976)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast coming at you live from Orlando, Florida at Zero Trust World. We are just about midway through day two, having a fantastic time here. And I ran into one of our favorite vendors booths and found a new person to interview.

And we are going to have some fun with that. I'm talking about Stephanie Weagle from Liongard. She is the Chief Marketing Officer.

And we don't know what we're going to talk about, but she sounded fantastic. So, Steph, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me.

I appreciate the time today. All right. So, how's life? It's good.

Been on the road a lot lately. It's the grind. It's time of year.

Yeah. Trade show season. What show number is this for you? This is number three for me, which was at Exchange earlier in the week.

Haven't been there in a while, but that was a good show for us. And now we're here at Zero Trust World. So, big change from Exchange to here.

Yeah. You got a nice captive audience at Exchange. I know the traffic here has been up and down with the lunches and stuff.

How's it been? Yeah, you're right. The flow's been a little bit up and down. Definitely a mixed audience here.

We're seeing MSPs, some of our partners are here, which is great to see them. But there's also internal IT, which is an audience that we don't always get to see. So, it's great to have some of those conversations.

And then, obviously, a little bit more security-minded folks here as well, which is great. Are those conversations different when you're talking to internal IT? Yeah, for sure. I think the conversation around asset management is a little bit more organic talking to internal IT than sometimes when we're having that conversation with MSPs, which is a little bit refreshing.

Okay. Nice. Now, your job as CMO, I don't think we normally see CMOs here on the booth floor.

Jack of all trades over here. Do all the things. All right, so you're at the booth, but you also do a lot of speaking around the industry.

Yeah. So, once you're a speaker, shouldn't you not have to be at the booth? I mean, yeah, I would like to graduate from that someday, but you know how it goes. You've got to roll up your sleeves and get the job done.

Yeah. At Liongard, we all do that. We roll up our sleeves and do whatever needs to be done to have success.

So, my team is working hard. We have probably not as many as all the other vendors in the space, but we're looking at probably about 80 shows this year. So, we all have to divide and conquer and do it all.

So, some of the folks here on the team are leaving tomorrow to head to London for IT Nation. You actually had a mid-show rotation, I saw. We did.

People that started the show aren't going to be the ones that finish the show. That's right. We had the baton handoff.

Nice. Nice. So, let me ask a couple of questions about Liongard because I do use them.

It's not something I just talk about on the show. You guys used to be a sponsor. We'll get you back.

But I did notice a lot of changes in the platform. I don't remember seeing a lot of announcements about them. So, how are you guys getting the word out and what are some of the changes, just so we can let people know? Yeah, for sure.

Great question. So, look, I mean, the founding use case for Liongard was automated documentation. And that's still foundational to what the platform does.

But I would say over the last year, there's been some substantial changes where we're really focused on honing in on that asset inventory and really making that the core focus of the platform. So, that asset inventory is really an enriched component of the platform. There's visual insights, which we're finally delivering on the promise of really strong dashboards and reporting that's inherent in the platform.

Network monitoring is another key component. So, a lot of those new capabilities were just launched in, I would say, July of last year. And new capabilities and new features have been rolling out since then.

Okay. There was a couple of different things I just noticed in the last month or two with how my cyber score dashboard pops up. That looks a little different.

Yeah, that's in the visual insights. Okay. Yeah.

Now, are those pulling from new integrations? Because I don't know if I've added any new integrations. But I know you guys are adding stuff in the background that we don't know about. Yeah, so it's all pulling from the metrics.

It's just better visualization and just better inspection of the data and really working on inspector health and ensuring that we're getting as granular as we need to be to get you the data and the visibility that's required to run your business in the way that you need to. Okay. All right.

I guess it wouldn't be a podcast or it wouldn't be a talk or it wouldn't be a cyber conference without the topic of AI. So, let me ask you about that. How's AI coming in the Liongard family? Yeah, I mean, there is a lot of hype around AI.

And for sure, that's definitely something that's embedded in our platform. The AI asset summary is the AI search. There is an AI assist functionality that's coming later on this year, actually in the April timeframe.

It's a core component. I think that if you're not embedding AI in your platform, your tool, you're kind of getting left behind. And what we're finding with our partners is that they're really adopting AI in a more meaningful way, whether that's automated ticket routing or workflow automation or understanding customer sentiment, whatever it is, it's all happening and it's happening really fast.

I think faster than a lot of us expected. Absolutely. Expected, but faster than a lot of us wanted.

Yeah. And at a pace where customers are actually doing a lot of stuff before we even know about it. Right.

That's got to be fun. Right. Chasing, a lot of chasing.

Let's see. You guys, I'm trying to think if I've been on there. It's not Liongard University.

What's it called? We have Liongard Academy. Academy. That's right.

I have not been on there in the last few weeks. Anything new that I should go check out? Gosh, in the last few weeks, I'm not sure about the last few weeks, but our education team is amazing. And they're always rolling out new material.

Gosh, in the last few months, I do know that there's role-based trainings, depending on your role. Oh, I do remember that. Yeah, that was huge.

Yeah. So I know that that's new-ish in the system, for sure. Okay.

Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm watching them move tables and stuff because, again, we're still in the vendor hall. It looks like they're getting ready for some kind of dance party.

Must be moving out tables and stuff. Have you been here the whole time? I don't think I saw you over there earlier. I've been here the whole time.

Okay, sorry. That's okay. I just blend in with the carpet.

So what has your experience been like here so far, venue-wise, conference-wise? Yeah, I mean, this is a familiar venue. There's a lot of industry shows that are here, so very familiar. Believe me, I'm loving the weather.

I'm from the Northeast, and we're dying in the cold weather, the snow. We're getting more snow tonight, so hopefully I can fly home tomorrow. Do you have to? I have to.

I need to get home. I'm coming back here. I'm going to be in Tampa for CyberFOX next week.

I was going to say, you might as well just go over there and stay. I might as well just stay, yeah. You can hang out on the beach.

I know, that sounds delightful. But no, I've got to go home, see the fam, and then come back. Yeah, it's when a nanny's warm.

Overrated, yeah. I'm trying to stay married, yeah. That's the game plan.

Okay, I hear you. The show's been good. I mean, I feel like it's well-organized, well-put-together.

I mean, these things are hard to do. You know, we put on our own show annually, and it's hard to do. There's a lot of people that you need to serve.

The attendees have to have good content. You have to have good food. That's important.

You have to have good traffic flow. So I think, you know, overall, this has been a decent event for us. All right, so if I translate that correctly, you're saying that there was good food here. Food's been a 10 out of 10, I would say, for hotel food.

A 10, really? Yeah, I mean, look, easy to please, but yes. I mean, they got the Fiji. I'd put it above average for sure, and we did talk.

I've had a couple of people. We talked about the fact that the drinks are out almost all day. Yeah, you don't have to, like, scour the corners of the room to find water.

And there's multiple drinks available. Tons of the Fiji water, multiple Coke products, Sprite, and lots of tea and hot water. Yes. 

I don't know about you. I'm a tea drinker. And almond milk.

I mean, I'm not that. You're not that guy? No. OK, well, you usually have to beg for that.

Is it? But isn't almond milk? That's one of those things that they tell you to do on the diet, right? Well, you know, it depends on what kind of diet you're on or, you know, what your lifestyle is, I suppose. Yeah. You don't just drink it, drink it.

No, you don't have like a glass of almond milk. I mean, maybe some people do lactose free people. Maybe. 

I don't know. Well, they do. It does come in a carton you eat at the store, right? Yeah, it does. 

Yeah. But it usually goes in the coffee, goes in cereal, maybe. Cereal? Maybe. 

Really? Yeah. I'm not an almond milk drinker. Isn't it thick? I don't know. 

I'm not an almond milk drinker. Oh, you're not? No, but one of my colleagues was just very excited about almond milk. And I said, wow, that's really great that.

Oh, OK. I thought you were the almond drinker. I'm like, tell me about almond milk. 

I'm a two percent gal. Oh, two percent. I was a skim drinker, skim milk drinker back in the day.

Yeah. So, yeah. OK, we didn't plan to go down this route.

No, I mean, this is very random, but I like it. OK. All right. 

So the food was good. The traffic flow, you think, was good. It's OK. 

We're in a weird spot. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, you think you're right in front of the door. It's like, wow, that's great. Positioning, but I think people the flow is people are just walking right by, walking right by going to the left because it's kind of you're in the corner.

Yeah. People are swiping left, right. People are putting the lion baby in the corner.

Yeah, they are. Yeah. Can't put baby in the corner.

Can't. But it's OK. We're getting we're getting good conversations and decent traffic.

Right. Regardless. OK. 

So food, traffic flow. What's number three? What's number three? I'm asking you this so I can set up the question of what would you guys do different at your next RoarCon? Oh, RoarCon. We can't wait for that.

Am I going to be invited, by the way? Yeah. I wasn't. I don't think I was invited last year.

You know, we changed the format from the original. I don't even know what the original was. OK, so we did this big thing.

It was our first time. We were newbies. We didn't know what we were doing. We had this big thing in Dallas at the Cowboys training. Yeah, I remember that. Look, it was fun. 

We learned a lot. Was there a ton of value there for the folks that sponsored? Maybe not. So we learned a lot and we changed the format and we brought it back to Lion Guard's hometown headquarters, which is in Houston at our offices.

And it's more of a hosted event where we're bringing in a much more refined group of about 100 unique MSPs. The content that we're delivering is curated. OK, so just much smaller and more thoughtful.

OK, our first year. All right. We're doing that format again in August of 20.

In August. Yeah. So we have to find a spot to fit in our event in this huge show calendar.

Well, it's not are not a lot of open spots. Well, you were smart not to do it at the beginning. Yeah, because I have traveled already seven out of the eight weeks.

Oh, my God. Too much for me. That's a lot.

So I now have a break until May. And then I've got one in June and one in September. OK.

And I guess I got to get on with nothing in April. You're not going anywhere in April. So there is one in April, but I've not committed.

I had to take a break, too. Yeah. Yes. 

You need some time on the beach. But you guys are doing 80 events about, you know, whether it's whether it's a, you know, industry event or activation or, you know, co-sponsor type of thing. Now you won't do all 80, right? I personally know. 

No, but we're a small team. So, you know, we're all we're all hustling. OK.

All right. So RoarCon is in August. Yeah. 

In Houston. In Houston. And a hundred of your favorite MSPs.

Yeah. You know, yeah. All right.

I'll just see if I can get on that list. Get you there. Because I am an MSP.

You are. I know. I forget that.

I think you're just this, you know, personality in the industry. I forget that, you know, you have a day job. Yeah. 

You got to pay the bills, right? Yeah. All right. Stephanie Weagle, CMO at Liongard.

Thank you very much. Thank you. And you can go thank your friend for suggesting that you be on the show.

Yeah. Thanks, Jess. Appreciate that.

I wasn't going to say the name. Well, you did. I did.

Steph, thank you very much. Folks, you can check out the information on the show notes and the website and of course, head over to Liongard. Stephanie Weagle, CMO.

Thank you for being on the show. That's going to do it. We'll be back with more from Zero Trust World here in Orlando. See you soon. Holla!