Learning from the VP of IGM about choosing an ecosystem, cloud-based management, and supporting STEM

(watch this episode here)

Brad Anderson: IGM is one of the largest financial organizations in Canada, handling more than $160 billion in investments. Tell us a little bit about IGM and that scale.

Keran McGuire: One thing we talked through when we decided to innovate on our infrastructure was, “How do we make the back end and the front end friendlier?” We talk about the cloud a lot, but, to the end user – whether that’s clients or advisors – it's all gibberish. We can talk about VMs and CASBs and all of these great pieces of technology, but we need to start changing the front-end experience so we can actually show why it's important to go on the full journey. So, we adjusted our conversation to:  “How do we change the end-user experience to be more modern?”  I think I get a “thank you” for Microsoft Teams almost every day.

And the reason is this: When I joined the organization, it was a bit of a dog's breakfast when it came to collaboration tools. We had a little bit of everything: Skype, BlueJeans, Zoom, CenturyLink, Bell Lines. You name it, we had a flavor of it. As a result, the start of every meeting took 15 minutes because we didn't know how to get the meeting off the ground. We were using one thing for video conferencing, another for audio conferencing, and it was very, very painful. Teams has completely adjusted that.

A very powerful statement was made to me about a month ago. The majority of our team is in Winnipeg, and we have one or two people in Toronto who have, for a long time, felt left out because we couldn't see them, or we'd call them on the phone and they couldn't really hear us, and we'd give them a bridge, and we'd forget they were on the phone. And the Teams experience has removed all of that. They said, "You know what? Even when we go back into the office, we're going to keep having Teams meetings because we feel so much more connected."

Brad: I know that right now your organization is piloting the Microsoft Managed Desktop (MMD). What got you interested in using MMD, and what makes it a good fit for a regulated financial institution?

Keran: A couple of things. First, we were moving away from a software partner, and one of the things we were talking through was changing the device image itself. And when we were talking through what it would take to build out a whole new image with net-new tooling, and the people that support it, we thought:  “How much do we as an organization want to take on, and what’s the best use of our resources? We're not a technology company at the end of the day. We’re a financial institution. We really need someone else to be doing that.” Microsoft Managed Desktop hits so many of our points. It made the image itself much easier to use. The security aspects, which are paramount for a financial institution, were so well thought through.

And the Microsoft Managed SOC that came with it was another thing we were kind of blown away by. Knowing that devices would be managed and monitored 24/7 – and taken out of circulation if certain parameters weren’t met or certain attacks were placed against the device – it became apparent pretty quickly that this partnership with Microsoft was going to make our lives a lot easier. The containerization, the innovation, and frankly, just the ease of use were top of mind when we started talking about MMD.

Brad: You talk a lot about user experience. As you simplify all those back-end pieces, the user experience dramatically improves. And so we've seen, for example, an 85% decrease in boot time, battery lives doubling, and end-user satisfaction through the roof because their PC now feels like their phone in terms of performance and snappiness. It just feels modern.

Keran: Absolutely.

Brad: I want to go back to one of the things you mentioned, about having a little bit of everything and how it took 15 minutes for a meeting to start.

One reason why a lot of organizations struggle with that is because of how they think about what the best solution would be. And there are two lines of thought. One is, “I'm going to think about best of breed in a narrow band,” and the other is, “I’m going to think about the best ecosystem end to end.” Tell us how you think about this, and has your thinking evolved?

Keran: Best of breed is interesting when it can be siloed—if it’s a siloed product that has a special niche. But for the end-user experience, an ecosystem is so important because you need the device to work with the tooling, to work with collaboration, to make life easier. As technologists, we're responsible for more than just people being happy with the experience. We’re responsible for managing the security of those devices. And when you put contending products on it, you actually degrade the user experience. Whether it's collaboration tools that don't talk to each other correctly, or management tools, or security tools, if you don't develop a strong ecosystem, you absolutely impair the end-user experience, and you actually cause the business to slow down. I can talk to many instances where we've deployed a best-of-breed product that impacted productivity. I'm a super strong believer that you have to have a strong ecosystem.

Brad: I would just love to hear some of your thoughts on the importance of STEM, STEM education, and STEM careers for girls.

Keran: I'm a very strong believer that we need to encourage girls to take math more than we do. Generally speaking, girls are inundated with images and things where they need to be pretty, or they need to be a certain way. When I was in high school, I had the option of advanced math or regular math. And I remember the teacher saying to me, "You're not going to need advanced math. So, you're fine in regular." Stuff like that is very discouraging to girls. And the reality is, without having taken mathematics, your options for what you get to do in university are very, very limited.

It resonates very much with me because I was one of those people. I got through college, and when I went to go pick my university courses, I didn't have the math. So, I actually had to take a year to get the math courses that I needed to get into information technology management. I think it's really important, and it's one of the things I speak about whenever I get the chance. Take the math courses. You may not use them, but at least you've given yourself the option.

Brad: All right. Well, this has been fantastic. If people want to get in contact with you or learn more about the organization, where would they go?

Keran: You can find me on LinkedIn or visit IGMfinancial.com.