>> JOC: I'm Alessandra Barrett, senior content
editor for JOC, and I'm at LogTech19 with
Brian Glick, founder and CEO of Chain.io.
Great to have you here, Brian.
>> GLICK: Nice to be here.
>> JOC: You just closed our LogTech conference
with a great panel on the future of technology
in our space. Where do we go from here?
>> GLICK: So, to look at where we go, I think
we have to look at what happened last year
at the show, versus this year. And last year,
and even in previous years at other events,
we were learning about technology. We were
talking about what is blockchain, and what
is AI, what are APIs? This year, there was
really none of that. The conversations are
what are we gonna do with it? And we finally
hit that point where, whether it's the shippers
or the logistics companies, that we're really
talking about solving problems now, instead
of understanding what's available. And I think
that makes for a really exciting time coming
up in the next year of really seeing people
apply these technologies to real solutions.
>> JOC: Does it surprise you that it shifted
so quickly in a year?
>> GLICK: Not really, only in the sense that
these are cycles that are tried and true,
so, you know, we look back to — As a systems
integration company, you know, I look back
to things that happened in the early 2000s
and in the last investment cycle, where we
all had to learn about things that seem antiquated
now like XML. What was XML, and what is this
thing, and how can I — oh my God, I can, you
know, e-fax something to a vendor. It was
an amazing technology at one point. And they
take a little bit of time for us to understand
them, a little bit of time for companies to
use them poorly, and then a long time for
them to get it right, and we're just getting
into that last phase of it, where, you know,
people are gonna start really judging things
based on the basis of the business value,
instead of the basis of the buzzword. And
that's a much more fun place to be when you're
building real tools.
>> JOC: In your opinion, what has been the 
buzziest buzzword? What’s the thing that didn't
deliver?
>> GLICK: It’s very tempting to say blockchain, 
but I think it's still too early to say that
it hasn't delivered. It's just, it's finding
a home. Honestly, and — people are gonna get
mad at me, but I think the buzziest buzzword
is still APIs, only in the sense that APIs
are not in and of themselves a solution. They
are a piece of technology, and companies are
going to harness this technology to do lots
of things, but there are still people out
in the industry who see API as sort of that
mic-drop thing. I can say API, and it implies
that all the problems that have existed in
30 years, or even in thousands of years of
companies and people trying to work together,
are just gonna magically get washed away because
of a three-letter acronym. And that's the
same thing we heard about XML, and the same
thing we heard about, oh, we have a fax machine
and all of those problems of mailing things
are gonna make the whole supply chain better.
So, you know, there's a long cycle of that,
and anytime somebody throws a three-letter
acronym and doesn't finish the sentence with
something else, they're probably selling something.
>> JOC: How does it all come together?
>> GLICK: It all comes together by starting
with business problems, starting with real
issues that people are having, and then adding
the tech. And the biggest difference for the
last couple years and the next 10 years, in
my opinion, versus what we've seen in the
past is, it used to be you made one generational
decision to partner with a vendor. I'm going
to buy this TMS, or this ERP, and that will
be the last IT decision I make for five years.
And now what companies have to do to bring
this all together is, it's really up to each
company to say, there's a thousand startups
out there, and there's, you know, a thousand
existing providers with great tech, and I
need to stitch together my own solution. That
is, I can't just be a digital forwarder or
a, you know, digitally enabled BCO. I need
to understand what that means to me, what
that means to my customers, and look at this
whole smorgasbord of technologies out there
and pick the pieces that work for me. Which
is a harder problem to solve, and it's going
to take smarter people inside the companies
who are business-focused, not tech-focused,
first.
>> JOC: Is there a technology that you're
excited about, that you feel that no one's
talking about yet?
>> GLICK: I think all of the technologies
are being talked about to death. What I'm
excited about that people are just getting
around to talking about is the old-fashioned
stuff, honestly: business process right to
look at robotic process automation companies
are PA and even you know how people are using
these APIs that people are getting back to
fundamentals and they're getting back to what
are the real how do I map out like my business
my process my whether it's my supply chain
or the value that I'm bringing to my customer
as a service provider and really talking about
that. And that's the thing that I wish we
were having more conversations about — about
the holistic business processes and how we
all partner together — and then let the geeks 
go back in the back room and solve how to
make that work. But that executive conversation 
and that strategic conversation, really, we're
starting to have it again, but it's a much
more exciting conversation. It's so much harder
of a problem to solve, honestly.
>> JOC: Always great to hear your thoughts. 
Thanks, Brian.
>> GLICK: Thank you.
>> JOC: I've been speaking with Brian Glick, 
CEO and founder of Chain.io.
