Blog

May 15th, 2012

Sometimes in our industry we can build up a strange attitude of superiority to our clients. In our pursuit of excellence, we forget that our real purpose is to assist the clients to meet their objectives. No one wins if our client's don't see success. As service providers, we are here to be “the best in the world” in our area. However, we must bring that expertise to our customers in a way that empowers them, rather than imprisoning them to our approaches and systems.

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John Gupta's picture
Author
John Gupta
Board Member
May 9th, 2012

On occasion a client is not fully able to express their requirements. Our challenge is then to expand our conversation to help the client express their objectives to see if we can help them arrive at a solution. It is not unusual for clients to sometimes express their needs in terms of approaches that do not really help them meet their objectives.

A good friend of mine was charged with developing a solution for her university. The challenge…

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John Gupta's picture
Author
John Gupta
Board Member
May 1st, 2012

As a member of the Olive Technology Board of Directors, occasionally I get the opportunity to work on new initiatives before they are adopted by Olive. In the process of looking into a new opportunity we needed some research to analyze the business case. The exercise gave me the opportunity to adopt the mindset of a client. I selected to obtain bids from two research companies. My experience highlighted some of the challenges that can exist from a customer’s perspective. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some issues that I faced, with the hope that the discussion will help each of us to see the world from the client’s perspective.

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John Gupta's picture
Author
John Gupta
Board Member
April 24th, 2012

Project Management is at the core of delivering IT services. This critical task is not an easy one and requires some very unique skills. I would say the greatest strength of a project manager is his/her TEAM: the way a project manager influences and empowers the team to get the job done is the key to success.  Peter Drucker said, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." I believe the project manager should do the things right and "lead" the team in a right way while s/he manages the project. 

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Vasantha Ramesh's picture
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Vasantha Ramesh
Project Coordinator
March 27th, 2012

When we think of technical specifications, most of us conjure up ideas of complicated documents with lots of math, endless detail and diagrams few people understand. There are tech specs like that, but not all of them take that form and most don’t need to.

Sure if you work for NASA, then your technical specs are very complicated. But if you are trying to get a web application or piece of software designed, the technical spec should not be out of this world. So what does a good technical spec look like for mere earthlings? Here are some simple elements that every technical spec should have:

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Jon Hirst's picture
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Jon Hirst
Marketing Manager