[Music] the Aldis podcast is brought to you by Aldis International supplying your expert Ai and digital transformation staffing needs across the US and Europe today you are listening to our service now Series where we interview the best and brightest of the industry to share their story advice and views on the exciting world of service now and digital transformation [Music] hi everyone it's Mark Kelly here I hope you're doing really really well and you are into an actual trees for our service Now podcast series and continuing in our Federal Form we are absolutely delighted to welcome Nicole Francis Reynolds Nicole is VP and Global head of government relations at service now Nicole thank you very much for joining us on the show today thank you so much for having me Nicole tell us a little bit about your journey how you get into the world of service now because we're going to be talking about more your role and what you do day to day but actually I'd love to hear more about your actual story to that because it's it's a pretty fascinating one absolutely Mark so the journey to this role was and has been an unorthodox one uh you know I'm te years ago I won't say how long um you know my dream was to become an attorney um uh be married by 33 uh be a partner at the law firm I began practicing at um have the house with the picket fence the two children and the dog and fate would have it um and I I often say God has a sense of humor that there was a journey um and has been a journey involved um getting to this place uh and to this amazing company called service now you know I practiced law for um a number of years at um two fantastic law firms uh Global firms at that uh and worked on Capitol Hill for close to 10 years in a number of senior roles with some amazing members of Congress and on a and on a congressional committee uh worked for a fortun and 500 company worked for a trade Association and and then all of a sudden I received a call from what I call uh who I call an Angel um a recruiter who uh was looking for someone to lead service now's Global government relation team to create it and and to lead it wow so you were probably just like happy doing what you were doing on that on that journey and then you you took the call you're probably tiing yourself what if I didn't take the call right that's right that's right and in fact because California I I live in Washington DC and my family and I live in Washington DC and U because service now is headquartered in California uh the message from the recruiter came in around midnight and it was in my spam box and think about how many of us go through our spam boxes and automatically delete those messages and so I looked through them and saw that and uh I am so thankful um you know that that she reached out to me and uh and thankful you know three years ago um almost to the date um three years ago I began this role that's good knowing from working in the Staffing industry myself for 15 years I probably think that recruiter would have kept coming after you though on LinkedIn and stuff so so maybe the story isn't don't don't worry too much um on this man but I like I like how you think about it so in your role tell us about what do you do dayto day tell us a little about your team and you what what does that look like so our team I don't know if you have ever watched Scandal but I often call our team the Gladiators because um there is never a dull moment there is never a typical day in the world of of government relations you know our role is to represent service now in front of governments around the world we are to inform them about our amazing platform all the great things that it does uh to modernized processes for uh you know from end to end for governments and for corporations um and nonprofit organizations and it's to inform them about our use cases about how we are transforming the lives of people the military veterans um employees Etc uh basketball players you know those who watch Disney um those in the automotive sector and and and others and so we are to inform them about these great use cases uh and and we are also to just continue to elevate our brand and we inform members of um of governments or or policy makers around the world about our policy positions on the issues that are keeping them up at night and and that they are you know working on day byday to develop policies around the world and and to to change the the world that we live in so I can imagine doing that role within one jurisdiction one one one area so when you actually take that kind of global perspective on us with so many different value systems C cultures the legal perspective you've got so many different types of Nations at different stages of their Journey add in some conflicts and wars in between us you've got you know a an incredible kind of bubbling pot of there so many different types of issues that you need to keep your finger on the PS of where do you even start you know trying to create a value proposition that's relevant to that enti area because they've got so many different types of needs yes and so so from a corporate perspective and even from a management perspective I start out and I strive to start out each day by looking at our own dashboard that we have within our service now Internet site that shows me as a manager here's what's happening with your employees today here's who's in here's who's out and then we have um objectives that we set each year and often times we recalibrate them as needed and and we also have our tier tiered countries that are priorities for us and so we begin our day uh and and let me I'd be remissed if I don't say that I begin my day um with my chief of staff speaking about what our priorities are for the day he keeps the trains running on time I love working with Ben and um and so he reinforces for me um what our must dos are for the day and what is what what's nice to do for the day and and it's all based upon what those priorities are what those objectives are and and uh and we try to execute those priorities each day so and I love that you know you kind of referred it back to you you've got your dashboard as well you're looking for that kind of next best action to kind of guide you along the way to do that and then it's it's all a case of priorization and I can imagine certain things get bummed down certain things get kind of bummed up when you look at your kind of shared vision and working on objectives within that shared Vision how do you kind of keep that kind of within the area that you're in but also kind of make align that with service Nows kind of more kind of broad Vision absolutely and and you know our our Mantra is that the world works with service now and so naturally there are so many amazing policy priorities we are working on and use cases that we want to um scale around the globe and so we have to go back to what our tier countries are um for the year uh what the again what the must do are for the week or for the month and and we we have to hold each other accountable because it's so easy to say hey this is what's happening um this week let's go over here and then we have to kind of pull ourselves back together and remind ourselves okay that that we want to run after is a nice too and we can tackle that after we accomplish what we need to today and so it's never easy right but that's that's part of executing be being an effective executive being an an effective professional I think that you know those of us who are dedicated to striving to to execute in the most efficient way it's just a it's something that you mentally have to embed right in your mind and and stay focused on it and bring yourself back to Center yeah and I as was that kind of recess and then just keep ensuring that the most important thing is the most important thing and then you're you're kind of setting up your your day accordingly around that side of it and you know that's easier said than done because you got a lot of different screaming voices but sometimes those voices are screaming are not the ones that that need to be prioritized as well so when you look at somebody impact and you know one of the things that I'm so I supp i' been not too surprised maybe it's not the right word but definitely be inspired by the impact service now has had across businesses a variety of different ways and even at k23 they started off from the nonprofit perspective and talking about you know how how Society getting impacted by that getting that rice is such a strong Foundation a leveler for everything else when you do the work that you do is there any particular case studies or impact areas that you've had recently that kind of give you a bit of a spring to your step that you can reference reference to that actually kind of show you know what this is making a difference absolutely and and you know what's so amazing about service now we have so many awesome teams within service now product and engineering and Communications and marketing and our public sales teams public sector sales teams from federal to you know emia and apj and Latin America and others that we we really work hard at aligning with them on the those priorities and learning what the use cases are and what is going well and how best we can scale them and so we are really proud about our ability to do that to build relationships within service now with our colleagues and then we are really excited about how we have had some great successes just within these three years of our government relations team being in being in existence um in building relationships uh strengthening relationships within Congress uh and building relationships in Europe and we have worked with members of Congress uh just within the last couple of years to uh develop language uh within Appropriations legislation that would then scale that type of technology so that other service men and women in other branches can use that to modernize how they report their cases if there's mold in in their living quarters if there's a leaky faucet whatever the issue may be that's impacting their living conditions uh our app helps make life better for them makes that process work better it also helps the employees and so we are now hard at work working with the Department of Defense to educate them about our software our solution and then we are hard at work at scaling it explaining it to members of parliament around the world about how it has been helping and continues to help help our service men and women and so those sorts of use cases are really really um something that I'm really and all of us are excited about because it's not only helping the employees it's also helping those who are protecting our freedoms each day because when you think about that and even we go to a little bit more detail on that so if you are going to you know work each day your job is very very important and you need to have your know Clarity of mind mind you don't be thinking or getting a phone call to say here's all the issues that we currently have living at home and then you're trying to quench those issues because it's hard enough for doing the job that you do so actually having Peace of Mind knowing that that is done then you can raise it get it processed you know exactly where you're at with that with that ticket or that item is just one less thing to to worry about because where we live how we live is such a big impact in terms of our psyche and the people that are serving for us we want to make sure they're in the best possible mindset that we can imagine because you know it's a Judy that's absolutely right here they have sacrificed their their lives to serve um and and the last thing they they deserve to do is go back to their Barracks or or raise children um in these Barracks those children make sacrifices too the spouses make sacrifices and then have to live in in in living quarters that that has has mold in it and and so yes any way that our solution can help modernize their living uh conditions um it just makes us feel wonderful so if we kind of go a little bit more onto kind of the kind of the future and some of the things that are kind of giving you energy or or exciting is there any particular projects that are kind of standing out that you you're really kind of excited to kind of get more involved in yes and so uh we are working with our public sector teams to implement what we are call what we are calling mission areas we have identified six or seven critically important areas that we know are important to governments around the world and are beginning to tackle um where can we socialize those Mission areas where can and how best can we determine um that the government can go about funding those sorts of of mission area so if you take Disaster Assistance for example we know that you know at what happened in Hawaii um you know the island of uh Maui um and how can we prevent that sort of issue from happening again how can we mitigate against um you know the Alarm Systems not going off or the decision to not have them going up how do we create more awareness amongst the people who live on the island so that they can make the best decisions for themselves to evacuate um can there be some sort of notification system if loved ones are missing how can we as a company leverage our platform to help governments respond to those sorts of natural disasters more efficiently and effectively and we are doing that and we have done that in Florida with hurricane Ian and and so we're looking to figure out how best to scale it and how best to work with government so that they can figure out if this is a legislative fix is this um a budgetary fix that we can create a line item to fund this sort of of solution arm these agencies with the modern technology that they need um to imp M this sort of solution so they're communicating amongst other agencies if you think about the cleanup after a disaster like this the response and and Recovery um it is an inter agency project so are the agencies communicating so that's just one uh you know subset of a mission area that we are working on and it's and it's it's absolutely um heartwarming um it's it's it's exciting it's challenging and and we pull together our teams internally to put those strategies we're doing that putting those strategies together because as we said at the start of the show although it's very very diverse and every different country and area is going to have their own different issues that are personalized relevant to them we're all we're all the same you know there's going to be some unique truths that we we all want to get resolution for to live a better life and to be able to to provide that so going after those kind of six missions is is is particularly uh inspiring for you to to as share as well when you look at some of the new technologies that is allowing you to probably do your role better we obviously kind of got Vancouver coming down the track I spoke to Victor Chen he was telling me about some of the innovations that are happening with generative AI as well how do you start to feel that digitalization transformation is going to help uh even even impact further within government so yes that's and that too is an exciting topic and our government relations team has been working on that Within the company for nearly one and a half years now and we formed an internal working group to to share internally what governments are doing by way of legislating and regulating artificial intelligence and uh we are a member of um service now as a member of the European internet forum and we were uh invited and spoke on a panel with um one of the rapporteur dragos tarach uh who is one of the authors of the EU AI Act early on uh toward the end of the year last year uh and we had the opportunity to sit with him and other panelists and talk about uh what service now is doing what what the what the opportunities are with artificial intelligence what the challenges are and how we have to be mindful not to leave communities further behind we have to bring them along as uh communities grapple with this you know the notion that jobs may be uh become more automated and jobs may be lost so um educating those who want to go back to work students who are majoring in computer science or information technology coding Etc um or veterans who who have finished their service and are looking for jobs how can we prepare them with the digital skills that they need so that we are bringing them along so we are helping shape legislation we we are doing that in the EU we are um now beginning to do that in Congress Canada um Brazil has uh proposed legislation Australia has legislation and and so we are excited about our Vancouver release and um and and um at the opportunity to talk more and more with policy makers about how it will help the integration of generative AI how it will help um improve productivity employee productivity responsibly securely safely effectively and and all those things that you said in terms of Technology as an enabler and helping and you know we can all see the benefits of that and it's funny herb was on the show um a couple of weeks back and he was talking about from you know hands-on experience from you you being in the military and then cross training up and then coming into the world of service now that you've got so many incredible people from all walks of life but unless they're given the opportunity to to step up and be cross trained and kind of given that given that new lease of life we're just going to waste waste it waste the talent for for themselves and the corporations and companies help be work work for but also as a society we owe it to themselves that we don't leave people behind you know the elevator lift is sent sent back down to kind of keep everyone on the journey because Society won't work and that's why I'm I'm I'm really happy with you know how people are being brought into the table on regulation because we know it's not necessarily A straightforward point of view that you we just regulate there's obviously that kind of innovation regulation dance that is delicate because you don't want to be too Innovative and not mind regulation but they you don't be too too much regulation in that not enough on the Innovation because then you become uncompetitive so there's a there's a variety of different areas to one of the biggest challenges with regulation and sort of the AI Act is you've got different sectors different Industries different um locations having their own interpretation so we need to try to get some type of unified uh thoughts on that so we can start to sell service services and products um in a way that it's very very straightforward but but like everything you need Med Dialogue on this and it's it's it's an ongoing process that's right Mark and you know the UK has also uh begun to take up uh AI legislation and there's going to be um an AI Summit in November that we are hoping to have representation you know at the summit and and one of the key um messages that you just touched upon um is harmonization the dialogue is so important and what we would love to see as Government relations experts and as corporate Executives and just from from from even a consumer angle is to see harmonization so that we are all compliant with laws that are similar in nature now we recognize that each country is unique and they have their own um you know unique traits and so some issues with regard to AI may be different but the the basic tenants of artificial intelligence you know what does highrisk um mean right what does um you know a large language model mean who should who should put the who should develop the large language models who will be liable if some sort of risk takes place or some sort of discrimination takes place um in in how these large language models are deployed those sorts of kind of foundational tenants we are hoping has you know it becomes harmonized around the world so that from a compliance perspective companies are compliant governments are compliant consumers are compliant and uh it's it's not easy but the more governments talk the more policy makers share best practices and developments uh the more that the EU commission the parliament the council speaks with you know the UK and uh Congress and a the Australian Parliament Canadian Parliament um if they talk more about what they are finding perhaps we will get to a place where all of their laws have some basic tenants that we can all adhere to yeah and then and then what you have is you've got more consistency people feel more comfortable then to start creating products bring them to markets you you've got more of a kind of a rule ofor to work off but with technology um and Innovation sometimes it takes it takes a while for regulation to to cap C catch up and this technology we've seen is moving so quickly that we need to be more mindful for us yes and and mark one other item I'd like to add is that as these large language models are being developed I think it's really important to make sure that you have diverse perspectives diverse individuals um helping develop those because then as they get developed those in individuals will take into account the ultimate impact as they get deployed and I think that can also help mitigate against the risks absolutely and we know that currently it it's not a fair it's not a fair representation right so consequently there's there's so much different types of biases that we need to be be conscious conscious for as well but this is why the dialogue is important this is why different leaders are coming together they understand this more than ever is uh a huge opportunity for civilization but also just getting it right having privacy by Design but also kind of having that in ation um as a Center Point um I feel like we could talk forever but I think this is going to have to be the end the the last question Nicole Francis Reynolds thank you very much for joining us on the show today thank you Mark and on behalf of our CEO Bill mcder and over 22,000 employees around the world including close to 900 in Ireland where you sit thank you so much for having me and I look forward to sitting and visiting with you again soon thanks for listening to this episode of the all this podcast if you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to subscribe rate and review we are available on Apple podcasts Spotify and any Android podcast of choice you can also head over to our website www.al this.com to listen to more podcasts view our open roles and stay up to-date with industry news thanks for listening and stay tuned for more great episodes coming very soon [Music]