Centric Commemorates presents a conversation about understanding and celebrating Juneteenth in this special edition of our Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks podcast.

Monday, June 19, marks the celebration of Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021. The holiday now reflects an even more widespread recognition.

Team members Maurice Faison, Blaiden Kirk and Dr. Jodi Merriday join our Couch Convos podcast host John Kackley for an insightful discussion on Juneteenth. They dive into why – and how – people celebrate it today.

Whether you actively celebrate Juneteenth or are just starting to learn about it, we encourage all to enjoy this informative and inspiring dialogue. Happy Juneteenth!

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 54: Celebrating Juneteenth

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, our automation experts discuss what went wrong with Taylor Swift’s latest concert ticket sales.

In November 2022, tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest concert tour went on sale on Ticketmaster.

Huge demand swamped the website during the “pre-sales” period, crashing it and resulting in considerable outcry about customer service, a near-monopolistic business, and other concerns. We are only now seeing how many lawsuits people are filing.

In this podcast, we dive into this situation from a technical point of view. What if your organization manages a website that faces substantial demand? It’s not only concert tickets that can drive that kind of demand. What about the widespread use of bots, which is one point of contention regarding the topic?

Join us for more discussion about the intricate dance between policy and technology in managing high-volume websites!

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 51: Taylor Swift Ticketmaster Debacle

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with some of our finest innovators to discuss their ideas for this year’s CampIO.

Every year Centric Consulting hosts CampIO, an internal tech conference where our consultants can get together to share crazy ideas, amazing projects and good times.

In this podcast, we visit with Eric Galluzzo, the organizer, and this year’s two winners for top presentations, Becky Gandillon and Jeff Aalto.

Join us to hear about their amazing projects and for a far-reaching discussion among passionate people excitedly talking about their favorite side projects. How do these passion projects relate to the client work people do? What problem-solving approaches do these passionate people use, and how can you apply them?

We also share ideas about how you can share your own enthusiasms with us even if you can’t make it to Centric’s CampIO 2023!

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 50: Camp IO 2022

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we talk about organizational change management and how it works within your business, no matter where you are in your change journey.

To other roles in a transformational project, organizational change management (OCM) can feel like a discipline on its own little island. It’s certainly connected to the rest of the project, but how?

We talk with Mark Paulson, Senior Manager for People and Change in Chicago, about how OCM best practices mesh with changes in other disciplines, including agile methodology, sprint development, and new expectations in corporate culture. He also walks us through answers to questions like: How does it engage with the technical world? How do you assess an organization’s capacity for change? How does OCM adapt for hybrid or remote work?

Join us as we dive into OCM in the context of your business projects.

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 49: OCM In Context Have you heard our latest podcast? Catch up on Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks! See What’s New

In this episode of our Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks podcast, we sit down with a consultant recently recognized by Consulting Magazine as Women Leaders in Technology.

In this podcast, we’re celebrating some of our finest consultants, recognized in 2022 by Consulting Magazine among the Women Leaders in Technology: our Chicago operating group’s Anelia Schmitt and Hilary Lee.

We wanted to get a take from these leaders on the challenges women face in consulting today and what they have learned from their experiences. One of the challenges that is all too common these days is being tremendously busy, which meant we couldn’t make the schedule work to talk to Hilary. Instead, another Chicago leader, Amy McJoynt, joins the conversation.

In this discussion, we talk about these challenges and more. While we look back on their formative professional years, we look forwards as well discussing how we can lay the groundwork for the leaders of the future.

Join us for this podcast to get Amy’s and Anelia’s thoughtful insights on the opportunities for women in consulting today.

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 48: Women In Consulting

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with Modern Software Delivery expert Pete Walen to talk about using test automation to support software development.

A lot of software testing is repetitive, and therefore a great candidate for some sort of automation.

Automation on its own doesn’t solve all your problems, however. You need to design it around the needs of your business environment and the business solution you’re implementing. And even then, it can have surprising complications. In this discussion, we talk to Pete Walen about how to get the most out of test automation: when it works, when it doesn’t, and how to make the most of it in your particular situation.

Join us for this podcast to see how test automation can support your software development project, plus a whole lot more!

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 47: Test Automation in Software Development

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with a few members of our Innovation Lab to talk about their latest accomplishment – the Centric Virtual Assistant.

Our Innovation Lab is familiar with developing meaningful, realizable solutions for our clients and our company. In 2021, we faced a new challenge: could we use the Lab’s innovation process to drive a project that could build teamwork, relationships and skill-building with our technologists worldwide?

In this discussion, we talk to Eric Galluzzo, Carmelita Resh and Shawn Wallace about how the Virtual Assistant Project came to be and how the team brought it all together. With a volunteer team, resources found on an as-needed basis, and a constant pushing-of-the-envelope technological puzzle, they walk through how our culture reinforces itself even when circumstances make things difficult.

Join us for this podcast to see how you can engage team members in an exciting pilot project that builds skills, camaraderie and even a pretty helpful search tool, all at the same time!

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 46: Virtual Assistant Innovation

Only want the highlights? Check out our mini-podcast, Centric Shorts.

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Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 46 (Centric Short): Virtual Assistant Innovation

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with our Insurance experts to talk about using a security logging framework with Guidewire.

Guidewire is an industry leader core tool in the insurance space. As a Guidewire partner, Centric often works with clients to adapt Guidewire to their unique needs.

Recently, we teamed up with a client to add a security logging framework to their implementation of the system. In this discussion, we talk to Sean Neben, our National Insurance and Guidewire Practice Lead, and Steve Dripps, Architect, about their objective on this project. We also walk through how they adapted the security logging framework to the Guidewire architecture, and the scope of how logging activities can supplement more traditional security measures.

Join us for this podcast about Guidewire’s security logging platform, and see how you can adapt some of these ideas to your own needs.

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https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Centric-Podcast-45-Guidewire-Final.mp3

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we discuss the various uses of Microsoft Teams as a collaboration tool and learn how businesses can use it as a full digital hub for remote and hybrid employees.

The business world initially warmly welcomed Microsoft Teams due to its strong integration of chats, calls and collaboration. The subsequent pandemic and virtualization of many work environments led to an explosion of growth, and with that came many new ideas about how to use it.

For those of us who may have seen Teams as a user-friendly skin on top of SharePoint, boy, is there more to learn! In this discussion, we talk to our Modern Workplace Co-Lead Michael McNett about how companies can use Microsoft Teams as a platform to enable other workflow, documentation standards and business processes. McNett also shares how your organization’s IT department can enable options for expansion.

Beyond the basics, there’re also the exciting new integration capabilities of Microsoft Viva. McNett runs through the capabilities of Viva. For instance, if you hadn’t noticed Viva besides its replacement for Cortana’s daily digest, you may be surprised how much you already use this tool. Surprised or not, there are even more functions you can use.

Join us for this podcast on Microsoft Teams as a platform and get your creative, collaboration juices flowing.

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https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Centric-Podcast-44-Teams-as-Platform-Final.mp3

Do you only want the highlights about Microsoft Viva? Check out this episode of Centric Shorts.

Listen to Centric Shorts

https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Centric-Podcast-44a-Teams-as-Platform-Short-Final.wav

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we talk to two of our Salesforce specialists about using Salesforce Lightning to build out their own version of Wordle.

Some of our more recent podcasts have touched on a hot topic in the tech world – citizen development. Now we’re talking about what a business user might want to implement within a broader platform and how difficult would that be to create?

We’re looking at a concrete example of citizen development in action to answer these questions. Doug Burkhart and Shahid Mahmood, two of our Salesforce specialists, decided to replicate the word game Wordle on the Salesforce platform. Your users might have a slightly more practical objective, but maybe not one so much fun (or addicting).

In this podcast, we demonstrate the demo application and examine what we can learn from it about citizen development and the use of a platform for application construction. You can either watch or listen to this special edition podcast!

Join us for more!

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https://vimeo.com/718432049

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https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Centric-Podcast-43-Final-Salesforce-Wordle-1.mp3

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we’re looking at how company culture can determine business success. Company culture is a common topic of discussion these days and has been for quite some time. As early as 1951, businesses noted culture as a concept, and arguably, we can associate it with earlier industrial organizations such as Ford Motor Company in the early 20th century. Much of the discussion, however, has evolved into either: Company culture is a goal of its own – basically, you should have one. Or, Company culture is important for hiring people. Neither of those relates culture to the success a company may have in accomplishing its goals, whether at a project level or the bottom line. In this podcast, we talk about how culture can impact a company's success, as well as how diversity and social media reflect a company's culture and have their own impacts. Join us to hear more! Listen Here https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Centric-Podcast-42.mp3 Only want the highlights? Check out our mini-podcast, Centric Shorts. John shares an example about his time on a project where he personally observed how culture can impact the outcome of work effort. Listen to Centric Shorts https://centricconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Centric-Podcast-42-Centric-Shorts.mp3