Archive for the ‘Enterprise Services Protocol’ Category

Over the years, Entelligence has continually refined it’s processes and traninig to deliver a high level of customer service to its clients, end users, and stakeholders. One of the key ingredients of our customer service experience is the Senior Project Manager. This individual oversees the entire operation from beginning to end and juggles an always-changing slate of priorities, challenges, and expectations.

Today, we are talking with one of our top Senior Project Managers, John Gozberk.

Q. First of all, how do you ensure that the real goals and expectations of the key stakeholders of your project are met so that they are Very Satisfied with the experience?

A. Since most of the time I get involved after the sale, it’s imperative that I understand what was crafted, what was sold in the first place. Then, it’s critical that I conduct interviews with all of the stakeholders who are pertinent to the process, including the sponsor of the project for the end user. This allows me to clearly assess the situation and understand all of the expectations and roles I’m dealing with.

Q. How do you prevent scope creep?

A. I create a detailed project plan with input from everybody involved. I have meetings with the core team as often as necessary. On large, very complicated projects these meetings occur daily. These meetings also allow me to see what we’ve accomplished and what’s left to do. The idea is to avoid any misconceptions or mistakes at any level. Constant, open communication at all levels is critical to the process.

Q. How do you keep Team Members Engaged?

A. I have to be involved from Day 1 in every aspect of the process, and I have to be a part of the team with all that entails. I also need to understand what everyone on the team is doing, and how what they’re doing effects other parts of the process. I do daily updates and schedules, and we most often set up a War Room on the site so that the team can meet with our laptops and converse and discuss any issue(s) that may have cropped up.

I think it helps that I have previously sat in the seat of the ‘sponsor’, and I understand the issues he or she faces. Knowing that gives me even more clarity to get it right. I start the relationship out by stepping into my customer’s shoes to understand in every way what they hope to accomplish. My goal is to make them successful. I don’t need to be recognized.I want them to get all the benefits and accolades that come with completing a successful project.

Q. I understand that you have been instrumental in helping your Partner, Hitachi, generate significant revenues for some of their key new customers. What specific steps did you take to facilitate those deals?

A. I look at my customer in this way: What do they need? Not what do I want to sell them? How will what HItachi has to offer benefit the end user and fit into their organizational goals?

Most importantly, as a team member who has the respect of my peers, I have a chance to hear the conversations, listen to determine how I and my Partner can help, and then offer suggestions. I become a part of the solutions conversation and I help drive those solutions with my suggestions. That’s a little more work and a little more risk, but it is my best chance to benefit my customer.

Q. What 3 recommendations would you give to a new Project Manager for increasing their value to their Partner and/or end user?

A. I would recommend 3 things:

Situational Awareness-Be aware of everything going on around you

Listen- Listen to what is the real value that you’re bringing to your customers

Adapt- Be cognizant of the changes going on and be prepared to adapt quickly in order to deal with them effectively.

CRN Magazine has named EMC’s VNXe its storage product of the year for 2011. The VNXe is part of EMC’s series of storage devices aimed at smaller businesses and departments. It can hold 15K SAS storage and costs less than $10,000. CRN named its top 15 products for 2011 in its December issue.

EMC Chairman, President and CEO Joe Tucci believes that with products like VNXe, EMC can dominate the SMB storage market. In his mind this is just one product in a bigger plan to do just that. Tucci estimates the global data storage market to be around 50 billion dollars, with SMB accounting for at least 30% of that. EMC’s main competitors in the sub $10,000 storage market are HP, IBM, Dell, and NetApp.

To read the entire article about Mr. Tucci and his plans go to: http://www.crn.com/news/storage/229000760/tucci-emc-vnxe-is-an-smb-storage-game-changer.htm

And don’t forget to check out all of our EMC Jobs here.

We’d like to congratulate our strategic partner, NetApp, who were just named the #6 company on Fortune’s 2012 Best Places to Work list. They were also ranked #3 on the Great Place to Work Institutes list of the World’s Best Multinational Places to work in 2011.

Year after year, NetApp has been consistently recognized for their strong global culture and their passion and commitment to what they do every day. This kind of consistently great workplace is a vital part of dealing with the global explosion of data backup and recovery.

A great workplace allows engaged employees to do what they do best every day, with clear communication and without distractions, and NetApp does that over and over again for customers around the world.
We at Entelligence are honored to partner with NetApp to deliver seamless service time after time. We look forward to many more years of delivering more and more Very Satisfied customers.

Don’t forget to check out our available NetApp jobs .

Our strategic partner CommVault got some great news this week. In Gartner’s 2011 Magic Quadrant, they were designated as a ‘Leader’.

So, what does that mean exactly? Leaders are defined by Gartner as “companies that execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow”. Truth is, we’ve been a private label service partner for CommVault and, quite frankly, we’re not surprised.

CommVault’s backup and recovery products and services are some of the best in the industry. The Simpana 9 suite is quickly becoming a market leader in data management and data protection. And being named a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant is sure to drive even more demand for CommVault’s products and services. And this means CommVault Consultants will also be in more demand than ever.

No worries – we’re ready.

Being designated a Leader raises an interesting question: how do companies accomplish that? It’s one thing to have a vision and set goals- both long-term and short-term- but it’s quite another thing to execute well in accomplishing them. For one thing, it requires that everyone understand the goals of the organization. Secondly, everyone has to be clear on the steps required to reach those goals. Most importantly, you have to have the right people in place to accomplish the tasks at hand.

Congrats to all our friends and colleagues at CommVault. In the meantime, we’re hiring!  So, don’t forget to check out our CommVault jobs here.