Done properly, IT can be your greatest business enabler. You use technology to create, process, market, sell, and deliver, whatever goods or services are at the center of your business model. For some of you, technology may even be the business model. So, the better you align your technology with your business goals, the better your business outcomes will be. At TRUE, we have seen that successful alignment depends in great part on bridging the space between business strategy and technical execution. We constantly evaluate our clients’ progress and next steps in light of their goal. What’s working? What needs to be replaced? What will make systems more efficient? How can certain processes be more scalable? Our goal is to deliver more than just a network. We deliver a partnership. This week we’re highlighting someone who exemplifies that kind relationship in his role as a Technical Liaison Coordinator, James Keiser. Even if you have your own IT Teams and don’t work with an IT service provider, looking at how James operates can help you think through ways to achieve the same kind of seamless, internal collaborations that James enables every day at TRUE.
How can you identify and nurture talent early on?
When James Keiser came to TRUE at age 19 to work on our Global Service Desk, he immediately stood out as a capable technologist and leader. From the beginning, James set himself apart as a client support expert, willing to do whatever it took to help, even when it meant putting in extra time to grow in both his technical capabilities and client engagement expertise year over year. As James’ TRUE Team leader, Jane Caston, points out, “Having James on our team makes a huge difference. He always finds a way to get it done, and done well. He sees projects through from conception to completion. He’s quick about executing, so our clients never have to wait on something they need.” When you see someone like this come into a junior role, nurture their capabilities and give them a future path for growth. If you invest in your people, someday they may lead others.
Dedication to growth is a hallmark of leadership.
Today, having earned numerous certifications across diverse technologies and platforms, James has risen through the GSD, to the TrueGN (GNOC) service team, followed by a year in our new Technical Account Management team. He is now central to TRUE’s client success program as a Technical Liaison Coordinator– just ten years into his career. In his new capacity, James has consistently driven client success across both IT and Cybersecurity services, embodying the heart of True Digital Security’s managed service offerings.
Unifying IT, Security, and Compliance supports seamless decision making.
As people finally come to realize that it in both inefficient and foolish to separate IT from cybersecurity and compliance, they quickly realize that pulling together disparate teams can be quite a challenge. Pulling together specialists who see things from very different vantage points takes an ongoing, conscious effort. One benefit of partnering with TRUE for some part of your IT needs is that we can help you shift towards a more modern, sustainable approach to technology.
What does this look like day-to-day?
As a Technical Liaison Coordinator, James Keiser and his team are hands-on with our clients on the front end, and hands-on with our technologists and compliance experts on the back end, pulling just the right resources together to meet every client challenge. This is no easy task, as most people spend a lifetime simply gaining expertise in a single area (IT, security, or compliance). James has to maintain background in all three and keep his knowledge up-to-date, while balancing the time needed for ongoing client reviews and meetings. If trying to implement this kind of coordination on your own team, our advice would be to begin by delegating members of each team to meet together regularly to discuss needs, changes, and upcoming developments.
Better collaboration and coordination means faster execution.
Markets change, sometimes rapidly. You need the ability to change with your market, as well as flex with anything that comes your way. If your teams are still operating independently from one another, you will be hampered when it’s time to act fast. For example, when businesses were scrambling to deploy remote workforce models in 2020, James jumped in to consult with TRUE clients, pulling together all the technical, financial, and security considerations for each of the remote options available to them. Should they deploy widespread VPN? Maximize the cloud? Speed up a digital transformation project? The pros, cons, and long-term implications for such a major move need to be thought through extensively, but everyone was on a short timeline. James not only stepped up to help clients one-by-one, working long hours to coordinate calls across our internal experts to assist them in making wise, planned decisions. He also participated in webinar-style presentations to walk our clients through various scenarios and potential outcomes in their remote deployment efforts. This proved to our managed clients the real value they gain in working with a provider who truly has the deep bench needed to deliver end-to-end expertise.
With the guidance and support of James Keiser, not only did our managed clients survive 2020 rapid remote deployments without missing a business beat, but many of them actually saw a period of growth, while the businesses around them were struggling. Through internal client interviews at TRUE in recent months, we are able to see the real impact James has had on every client with whom he meets regularly. They feel and have been well supported, attended to, and encouraged during a year of tremendous need. James Keiser embodies our motto at TRUE, that cybersecurity is a team sport.
