The EPAM Continuum Podcast Network

We’re not talking about your grandfather’s cybersecurity. In our remote present, cybercriminals have many—too many—new opportunities to inflict damage on our vast out-of-the-office workforce. To obtain some much-needed perspective on security during our inherently insecure era, we brought in our Sam Rehman, Chief Information Security Officer and SVP, and Jit Agarwal, VP of Enterprise Products, to answer some questions from SILO BUSTING producer Ken Gordon. Their informed, pointed, and occasionally scary answers—on topics such as cybersecurity training and education, automation, and trust—have arrived just in time. As Rehman says: “The attack surface is just expanding.” With criminals phishing and impersonating their way into our digital lives, infecting our computers with malware and ransomware, we’ll need to rethink cybersecurity. Seriously. Trust us. Better yet, trust but verify.

Host: Alison Kotin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Who’s the person you really want to speak with during a pandemic? Why, a digital epidemiologist of course. And so we rang up John Brownstein, Chief Innovation Officer of Boston Children’s Hospital—and a former *Resonance Test* guest—so we might all benefit from his particular expertise. In this conversation, our Jonathon Swersey talks with Brownstein about population health monitoring, the collection of COVID-19 data, the relaxation of regulations during the pandemic, and why it’s a good idea to watch, closely, what happens on social media and in hospital parking lots. If you're part of the population whose life has been affected by COVID-19, you'll want to listen.

Host: Kyle Wing

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a test for innovators. The immense challenges of the situation have called for fast, scalable solutions—and two of the more prominent approaches have come to the fore: open source and crowdsource. In this episode of *The Resonance Test,* we interrogate some people who’ve played essential roles here. Dr. Freddy T. Nguyen, Co-Director of the MIT COVID-19 Challenge, Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, and a Pathology Resident at Mount Sinai Hospital, has done tremendous work convening teams from across the globe to crowdsource pandemic-related innovation. His conversation partner is EPAM Continuum’s Duncan Freake, a mechanical engineer who is one of the brains behind GENTL Mask, our open source design that employs readily available materials and a simple manufacturing process to enable localized manufacturing. Our Ken Gordon peppers the duo with questions and gets some really interesting responses, giving us an important look at how partnerships, humility, and especially networks functioned in their pandemic projects. “The value of a network is really investing in good people who have the right spirit and the right motivations,” says Dr. Nguyen—and we think that these words are not just true: they also describe both himself and Duncan.

The good news is: We’re open for business! The less-than-good news: It’s not a smooth process. The staggered, partial, uncertain return to our old professional haunts has arrived. Sort of. For some of us. It’s complicated. To sort out what’s actually happening in our offices, we brought together Jitin Agarwal, VP of Enterprise Products for EPAM, and Ken Gordon, EPAM Continuum’s Principal Communications Specialist and *Silo Busting*’s Producer, and got ‘em kibitzing. Together they hash out what executives are worried about regarding the reopening, contact tracing at the office, the demise of the business handshake, the tricky matter of office access, open sourcing our way through the pandemic, and more!

Host: Macy Donaway

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Retail is—slowly, slowly—reopening. The industry has been walloped, but it’s striving mightily to rally. What will retail’s next normal look and feel like? What will it take to make the restart safe, human-centered, and economically viable? To find out, we turned to Buck Sleeper, Director of EPAM Continuum’s Restaurant and Retail Innovation vertical, and Jitin Agarwal, VP of Enterprise Products for EPAM. Since Agawarl recently wrote about the rebirth of retail and Sleeper has long been interested in retail’s physical and digital merge, our Ken Gordon thought it was an appropriate time to toss some questions in their direction. Together the guys are optimistically cautious, or cautiously optimistic, about throwing an open sign on the industry’s big door. But they recognize that the industry is moving into new extremely new territory, and it must move with care. As Sleeper says about his most recent shopping experience: “I'll admit, I made it about 10 feet in the door, turned around, drove home, and completed my purchase online.”

In the two years since Catherine D’Ignazio last spoke with our Jen Ashman, she has co-authored a fascinating book called *[Data Feminism* and started a new gig as an Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. This time, their dialogue touches on the global benefits of teaching data feminism—“a way of thinking about data, both their uses and their limits, that is informed by direct experience, by a commitment to action, and by intersectional feminist thought," write D'Ignazio and her co-author Lauren F. Klein—remotely. Listen and learn about how our interdependence might lead to co-liberation, edible pie charts, and the idea of situated knowledge. There are multiple sides to this delightfully intelligent conversation, which makes sense because, as D'Ignazio says: “Data can be many things. Data could be images. They could be stories. They could be responses to a question.” Stand by for a number of thoughtful questions and wise responses…

Host: Macy Donaway

Editor: Kip Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

For many organizations, our remote present is rough. In the third episode of *Silo Busting,* Chris Michaud, VP and Head of our Innovation Practice, says that for some clients “There's a fear. There's almost a frozen-ness to it of ‘How do we, say, continue to connect with our consumers? We're really not well structured to be direct-to-consumer. We're *highly* reliant on our physical stores or physical channels to be able to get distribution.’” To which Albert Rees, SVP and Head of Business Consulting and Michaud’s conversation partner, says: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Fact is, EPAM is fortunate in that we know a thing or two, or three, about being a distributed and remote workforce, and so we’re in a position to help. Michaud and Rees share stories and insights around what we’ve lately learned. Their dialogue zeroes in on working in a world in lockdown; the sudden and serious need for digital adoption; and how some orgs are finding creative ways to connect with customers in the era of social distancing. It’s all part of what Rees calls “business as usual in unusual times.”

Host: Macy Donaway

Editor: Kip Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

The three most important letters in the alphabet right now are PPE. The personal protective equipment shortage is a major problem. The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic will be multiplied, exponentially, if doctors and nurses can’t get the necessary masks, gloves, and gowns to shield themselves as they treat patients.

What’s needed is a fast and effective response—and this requires both innovation and cooperation. These two elements can be found in the GENTL Mask project, EPAM Continuum’s open source PPE effort.

In this episode of *Silo Busting,* we’re proud to tell the story of the GENTL Mask. Jit Agarwal, VP of Enterprise Products for EPAM, speaks with Rich Ciccarelli,, Senior Director of our Made Real Lab™, and Duncan Freake, Senior Mechanical Engineer, two leaders of the GENTL Mask initiative. It’s a tale of speed, skill, and scale. “Good Enough, Not Too Late [GENTL] has been the guiding principle of a lot of our decisions here,” says Freake, explaining both the project’s ethos and name. “We set out to design something that would really provide meaningful protection and not take months to develop or be based on equipment that would not be set up until June.” Listen and learn how the GENTL Mask was briskly prototyped in our Made Real Lab, the role partnerships play here, and the open source nature of the project. We hope it will inform and inspire you.

Host: Macy Donaway

Editor: Kip Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

For some people—too many of ‘em—“automation” inspires little more than fear and loathing. That’s bad news for both companies and consumers. The good news: EPAM Continuum consultants understand intelligent automation deeply, and are skilled at explaining its manifold benefits. No one gets IA better than Albert Rees, SVP and Head of Business Consulting at EPAM Continuum. In this, the premier conversation of our brand-new podcast, *Silo Busting,* Rees and Chris Michaud, VP and Head of our Innovation Practice, kibitz about IA: its history, its role in business transformation, and its customer-centered outcomes. Consider Rees on banking and automation: “The problem statement all along was ‘I don't want to go in the branch. I don't want to be sold the mortgage every time I want to make a deposit. I don't want to deal with the lines. I don't want to deal with that stinking deposit slip, right?’ So all that stuff said: The experience has to change. I can assure you there's automation, from scanning that check through your phone, all the way through, ‘It's showing up now in your account,’ two seconds later.” So listen to the episode, share it with an automation-averse friend or client, and change that person’s understanding of IA. It’s the intelligent thing to do.

Host: Macy Donaway

Editor: Kip Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Welcome to Adaptive Enterprise, a podcast series in which we match up EPAM subject matter experts with Forrester Research analysts to talk out the major Digital Product Development opportunities of the day.

In our first episode, Elaina Shekhter, CMO & Head of Strategy at EPAM, sits down with our guest Allen Bonde, VP & Research Director covering digital transformation at Forrester, to discuss the building blocks of adaptive enterprises and what it takes to create new ecosystems that open the door to innovation opportunities.

Stay tuned for more scintillating sessions with lead analysts from Forrester & EPAM experts.