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 One
of the main goals of Culminis, perhaps the
main goal, is to provide services that open a
dialog between IT solution providers and the IT
professionals that implement their solutions.
By definition this dialog must be bi-directional
which is where the challenge lies. It is
usually easy for the solution provider to get
information out. Create a web site, do a
little advertising, attend a few shows, and 10
million IT pros can visit the site and see what
the company is about.
It
used to be that software companies would
establish toll-free technical support phone
numbers. Their staff would interact
directly with the user addressing, documenting,
and rating problems, eventually elevating the
appropriate issues to the engineering staff so
that the product could evolve. For the first
few years of the PC revolution this was a great
cycle, but as the user volume overwhelmed the
support staff’s capacity, this cycle began to
breakdown. Forced to keep prices low by the
ever-increasing competition, companies were
also forced to charge for premium support services.
At that point the cycle turned vicious. The
products evolve, the user bases expand, and the
cost of support goes up. With every new version,
companies lose touch with a larger
percentage of their user base, and as a result
customer satisfaction drops.
One
result of this cycle, of particular interest to
us, is the fact that after being isolated from
direct, individual contact with the solution
provider, users began to band together to
support each other and the Special Interest
Group (SIG) was born. Since IT professionals
must use dozens of products to support their
users, they inevitably ended up being part
of a user group.
SIG
and User Group are terms often used
interchangeably, but for the purpose of this
article let’s define the “User Group” as a
general interest group, as opposed to the SIG.
In any given month, my group,
CITPG,
may present topics ranging from Exchange, SQL
Server, or Active Directory down to something as
specialized as server-based disk
de-fragmentation. So I would define the
Carolina IT Professionals User Group as a
general interest group. Typically meetings
may be attended by 300-400 people, which is too
large a group for anything more than a light Q&A
with the presenter. As a result the user
group becomes another source of information
dissemination, but not one of interaction. Is
this a missed opportunity?
Organization and communication is the key.
Any general interest group must do what it can
to encourage and support the development of SIGs
within it ranks. These SIGs will help
define what the leadership should be doing in
terms of arranging speakers. When a
speaking arrangement is made, and it is of
interest to a SIG, the speaker can be informed
ahead of time. It may then be possible for the
SIG to meet independently with the presenter
before or after the regular session, and a more
in-depth dialog can take
place. But, such organization takes time.
I think I can write
without fear of rebuke that each IT
professional’s dedication to the craft is
unparalleled in any other business sector.
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We spend our free time
reading about this craft in books, magazines,
and on the internet. We attend workshops,
user group meetings, web casts, and conventions.
We are constantly under the gun to support the
old and learn the new; the latter usually on our
own time and often at our own expense. Yet
we do it, because we know that if we don’t, our
skills will be outdated, and we risk being cast off.
Culminis is in the process of creating two
services to help reconnect solution providers
and IT Pros in the most efficient manner
possible. The first service is the Speakers
Bureau. The second service is the provision of
a SharePoint portal for every member user group. I’m
going to address them in reverse order, although
the order is less important than the purpose of
the services, namely opening a dialog between
solution providers and the IT pros that use
them.
The
SharePoint portal provided as part of your
Culminis Alliance Membership is a powerful
communications tool. Once created, a user
group will find their portal http://www.culminisconnections.com/
sites/user_group_Name. ,
but I am only going to focus on one part of it
here.
With proper organization of discussion boards
along SIG lines group members will have a chance
to create a local resource for issues related to
that SIG. They will be able to identify and
meet other group members with issues similar to
their own. From their online discussions hot
topics can be identified, and thus used by the
group leaders as the basis for developing a
presentation schedule for the group.
Once
the topics are identified the leaders will use
the Culminis Alliance Speakers Bureau to create
a presentation schedule to address those topics.
This service, currently in phase one of
production, will help user group leaders
identify and select presentation and presenters
quickly and easily. Soon it will feature a
scheduling service. Once fully implemented
it is hoped that
So, in the scenario above, a hot topic has been
identified from the discussion board and a
speaker has been scheduled to address it. Now
the dialog can really be opened. Speakers,
once identified, can be given
access to these discussion boards. This would
allow them to see and address specific issues
listed there, and possibly choose to tailor
their presentations accordingly, or perhaps
arrange special pre or post meeting sessions
with the top ten or twenty contributors to the
discussion board.
This
new level of interaction could provide tremendous benefits for
both the user group members and the solution
providers represented by the speakers. IT
professionals will once again have the chance to
effect positive change in the solutions they
support, or at least have the opportunity to
understand those solutions to a much greater
degree.
These are just some of the benefits available on
the Culminis Alliance Member Organization SharePoint site. In future articles I will
discuss others. I’d like to know what you
think. Since this service is being developed
for you, the group leaders, your input would be
greatly appreciated. Please e-mail your
suggestions and comments to
technical@culminis.com.
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