Fidelis

Paul Glen, author of Guide to Working With Non-Geeks, published a column entitled “‘Nothing but the Facts’ Approach just won’t work with business people”. IT and business people think very differently, yes, but they can also work extremely well together. Paul has been observing the interactions of geeks and non geeks for years, gaining insight on how to understand the differences and each other’s motives, during presentations, in the workforce, and in everyday life. 

Paul challenged his IT readers to try an experiment. The next time you give a presentation to business people, do a follow-up a day or two later. You will find that nearly everyone completely missed your point. Paul said, “The reason we [IT] often bomb when it comes to presenting to business people is that we misunderstand how to process information and presentations. We make the mistake of believing they think like we do. They don’t.”

Business people look for 4 things:

FACTS. Most IT people who give presentations focus on the facts and numbers. Business people want to know the ‘why’. Don’t get too caught up in the cold, hard facts when presenting, make it engaging and appealing specifically to them. 

INSIGHTS. For business people, insights are more influential than facts. Try to guide your business audience to your important insights – make them see what you see.

STORIES. Most insights need a story to illustrate them. As Paul says, “for non geeks, stories are the dominant structure for understanding facts and insights”. Stories are compelling to business people, they may not provide proof, but it will grab their attention and make them see the important points. 

EMOTIONS. Business people want to feel something, connect with someone’s story, and make an emotional impact. Your challenge as an IT speaker is to leave an impact on your audience. 

 

For more articles by Paul Glen, go to: http://core0.staticworld.net/assets/2015/06/16/cw_geeks_insider.pdf 

 

Fidelis Companies President’s Trip is awarded to employees and managers who exceed annual sales and performance goals.  Previous President’s trip destinations include New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Steamboat Springs, CO. This year’s excursion was a 4-day visit to Nashville with five employees and their significant others…and, Alan and Karen, of course.  Setting foot on Nashville turf on Thursday morning, and having arrived at the hotel too early for check-in, eight of the twelve Fidelis crew headed over to The Pharmacy for lunch, and what turned out to be one of the best burgers any of us had ever eaten. The craft beers were pretty tasty, too.  

 

 

 

After check-in, the same eight headed out for a two-hour walking tour, experiencing some of the downtown Nashville highlights.  It was led by Bill DeMain, a Grammy nominated country music journalist, songwriter and musician (http://www.walkinnashville.com/content/meet-your-guide).  Bill was quite knowledgeable and entertaining; the tour was laced with history and stories about Chet Atkins, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and many others. Some of the most memorable sites of the tour were Skull Shulman’s and Bourbon Street, both located in Printer’s Alley, Tootsie’s (originally knows as The Orchid Lounge where many famous songs were written on napkins, and where many musicians got their start), the Ryman Auditorium (originally, The Union Gospel Tabernacle and the original home of the Grand Ole Opry) and Hatch Print Shop, which has been in business for over 100 years and still uses the same printing method it did in it’s original day.

On Friday, some of the crew hit the town on the Sprocket Rocket, pedaling and suds-ing their way around town.  On Friday night, all of us were treated to second row, center stage seats at The Grand Ole Opry, where we experienced a live radio show! With almost a dozen different acts, the music, humor and entertainment made it a great evening, highlighted by Little Big Town, Mo Pitney, Chip Esten, Whispering Bill Anderson and Exile (yes, we all belted out, “I Wanna Kiss You All Over” as loud as we could).  

Many of us toured the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, featuring “Dylan, Cash & The Nashville Cats,” with very cool and historical displays of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, of course; but, also of Elvis, Kenny Rogers, George Strait, Patsy Cline…you name the CM star, there was something there about them…as far back as you can remember, Roy Acuff, Roy Rogers, Loretta Lynn…up to today – Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan…

Most, if not everyone, made it to “Hattie B’s,” across the street from the hotel, for “hot chicken,” which was pretty tasty.  And, if you turned up the heat and ordered the “Shut the Cluck Up” level of spice, it lived up to it’s name.  I sweated and teared-up through a couple of pieces, but was unable to finish, and my stomach was warm for several hours after lunch..mm-mmm!

The other music and entertainment that we all experienced was The Bluebird Café, where Garth Brooks got his start in 1987, filling in for someone.  It’s a small and quaint, 90-seat restaurant tucked away in a strip center that features all types of musical talent and is always sold out.  We were serenaded by four singer/song-writers performing acoustic versions of songs they had written and published.  Each of the artist took turns explaining how, when and why they wrote the songs before performing them, making it a cool evening full of fun, laughter and even a few tears as they mixed in a few emotional ballads.  

On Saturday night, Alan and Karen treated all of us to an incredible dinner at Kayne Prime Steakhouse. The menu included Lobster Buttered Popcorn and Black Peppercorn Bacon wrapped with Maple Cotton Candy for appetizers, Black Kale salad with almonds and currants, and Filet Mignon, Salmon and Porterhouse steaks for dinner – all with fine wine, of course; and, closed out with several incredible desserts. 

 

LinkedIn: the website that helps you find the right people and the connections you have with them. It used to be impossible to know who was connected and how, but now with LinkedIn showing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd connections is of tremendous value for networking. In today’s society it is all about who you know if you want to get recommendations and stay top of mind.

There are currently over 347 million LinkedIn users- most of which do not use the site to its greatest potential. It is one of the most popular social networking sites for professionals and businesses, a great way to stay connected or find new job opportunities. Members should remember these key points I have found with LinkedIn: be an active member, strategically connect, follow company pages and join many groups. It may also be a smart idea to customize your public URL, so people can find you easier based on your experiences or keywords.  

Before I started looking for internships I updated my personal profile, making sure all jobs and responsibilities were uniform, so my page flowed flawlessly. I had multiple people read it over and take a professional headshot of me for my profile picture. I joined more groups and thought of every service or active group I had been apart of, because employers look for that. They want well-rounded, determined individuals who go above and beyond in everything they do. I started connecting with adults I knew, then searched for companies (Coca Cola, Heinz, UPS) they were connected with, learning more about how to network along the way. Then I connected with managers who had a job I was interested in, mostly in the Marketing or Advertising fields. I would send them a message on LinkedIn, and would get excited with many quick responses back, where these managers would ask for my resume and email. This invigorated me. I felt empowered when they said I was a “go-getter”, impressed by my persistence, and they wanted to keep in touch.

LinkedIn allows you to do an Advanced Search; where you can specify keywords, location, industry, and what company you’re interested in finding. Forbes recently posted an article under Leadership titled, “7 Ways to Make LinkedIn Help Find You A Job” (link below) which outlines ways to make your LinkedIn profile more powerful to possible employees. Learning how to sell yourself and successfully highlight your strengths is a vital part of updating your LinkedIn profile.

Megan Butz

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/04/25/7-ways-to-make-linkedin-help-you-find-a-job/

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

The situation in our section of the industry has been interesting over the past 12-18 months.  Our department focuses on PeopleSoft and Lawson primarily, and both are in the midst of a period where the majority of the customer base is facing the choice of upgrading to the latest versions, or paying for extended support on their current versions.  The need to upgrade has historically been a matter of when rather than if, but in the past those timing sequences for the respective systems have never coincided as closely as they are now. 

Beyond the upgrade or extend decision, customers have plenty of reason to invest in significant projects for their enterprise software to support their business.  Oracle and Infor have both been racing to compete in the cloud solution space, as well as enabling web-based applications, expanding functionality for mobile devices, and growing their selection of industry vertical specific modules to help customers get the most out delivered functionality and reduce or eliminate the need for extensive customizations to fit their particular processes. 

Another driving factor for project work has been an uptick in mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and other large corporate transitions that create a considerable amount of work for employee data and business process migrations.  Clients see the value in getting this kind of project experience for their internal employees, so they’ll look to augment their staff on the daily production support side, while those internal staff gain the valuable project based experience. This experience helps ensure a more self sufficient company well into the future. 

The surge in projects is creating a tighter, talent-driven market, and the demand for qualified resources has been impacting our clients’ ability to hire and retain full-time staff.  As quickly as clients hire or develop talent in-house, those people are being recruited for lucrative, exciting, and skill-set building consulting work.  The trend is causing many of my customers to show more interest in a managed services model for long term, process-driven technical support engagements. 

From a Business Development perspective, it’s maybe never felt more important to be thoughtful and strategic about how you invest your time and with whom you invest it.  Understanding industry ebbs and flows, fiscal year cycles, and the impact of national economic factors are all influencing what you get out of what you put in. 

 

Mike Simonson, CTS

Infor/Oracle Business Development