As a longtime IT/business journalist, I've logged untold numbers of hours interviewing enterprise IT executives and writing up the stories behind their technology decisions to share with readers. That's been one of the favorite parts of any of the various positions I've held over the years.
Sure, talking to the brains behind a groundbreaking technology, innovative product, category-shifting startup or transformative strategy can be interesting and exciting, too. But, to me, nothing beats having a conversation with an enterprise IT pro and hearing about real-world technology use.
Sometimes the technology choices IT executives make are deliberately transformative, and other times they're merely practical. Either way, getting inside a decision and learning about the business drivers, the deployment challenges, the user engagement and, ultimately, the benefits -- hard and soft -- is really what it's all about.
That's why here at No Jitter we're committed to making 2015 the year of the user. We'll be making it a point to talk to you, our enterprise reader, about what's going on within your organizations and the technology decisions you've made as a result. Your stories, we hope, will fill our pages.
Are you like Marriott International's Bob Galovic, vice president of IT, who after years of vetting services finally found a cloud option he'd be comfortable using to replace premises-based phone systems? We want to know, and to share your company's story as we did in last week's post, Marriott Calls on the Cloud for Enterprise Voice.
Maybe you're like Chrissy Linzy, supervisor of voice and video collaboration at Red Hat. As we wrote last month, she's breaking new ground at the open-source company using Blue Jeans Network's innovative Primetime online event service to host interactive video meetings.
Perhaps you're keen on real-time communications, a la WebRTC. I've already marked my calendar to sit in on the Enterprise Connect Orlando session, Real-World WebRTC Deployments, to hear how two enterprise organizations have embraced the technology. On tap to speak at the March conference are Stephen Fath, director of interactive video services at University of Texas Health Science Center, and Brian Barnes, vice president of world service and global credit administration technology at American Express -- and yes, I do plan on sharing the insights I hear from them, as well as other user speakers, here on No Jitter.
This is an exciting time to be involved in enterprise communications. As industry analyst Dave Michels wrote just today, "the industry is undergoing phenomenal, unprecedented and extraordinary change." If today's UC buzzword is transformation, as he said, where, then, does that leave you as an enterprise communications manager? I'll tell you where: Poised on the brink of communications decisions that not only mean technology changes but also, quite potentially, new career directions.
Might you become, as I've suggested earlier, the organization's chief influencer in communications data-fueled business analytics and communicated-related application development? Transformation often requires new hats--shouldn't one be on your head?
That's to say, technology isn't your only concern -- and it won't be ours, either. Our commitment to covering you includes a promise to discuss what it means to be involved in enterprise communications as an IT professional. We'll explore career opportunities, share best practices, and provide job tips, for example.
Of course, we won't be able to accomplish our user mission without your help. If you're involved in enterprise communications, won't you get in touch and tell us what's on your mind? What challenges do you face? What solutions have worked for you? How are you keeping up to date on the skills you'll need for the transformation within enterprise communications? Oh, the topics we could cover! Drop us a note in the comments section below or via email, and let's talk.
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