Success Story #3 – Shawn Scanlon

We all know one of these people.  They are the ones, who always greet you with a smile, a firm handshake, and an embrace.  Their good nature and sense of humor are contagious.  It is in their DNA to connect with others in a friendly, disarming manner.  This is the epitome of Shawn Scanlon (https://www.linkedin.com/in/esperp/).   Shawn is a 1998 graduate of Michigan State University, with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Engineering and one of the principle founders of Global Systems Integrations, Inc. (www.getgsi.com) AKA GSI.  GSI, under the three principle owners, is rightfully ranked as one of the top consulting and managed services firms within their core competencies. 

Early on in Shawn’s professional development he worked in small companies with the role of “Network Administrator”.  He did not wait until he was done with his degree to enter the workforce as a IT professional.  As many of us who grew into our IT careers starting in the 1990s through today, we all know that this kind of role in a small to mid-sized company almost always entails tasks and duties beyond the title.  So, yes Shawn learned and was involved in building out networks for corporate computing, but he was also instrumental in implementing data centers, building web-site content, developing and supporting software solutions (i.e. CAD, home-grown towing and transportation solutions, etc.), and mapping out IT services for corporate acquisitions.

In the year 2000 Shawn was hired at JD Edwards, went through their 2 week “Expedition: Install and Configure B7331” immersion training, and became a Configurable Network Computing (CNC) consultant in the mid-west region for JD Edwards.  Shawn quickly realized that as someone beginning in this role, he did not have all the answers, and needed help along the way.  Clients were paying a significant amount of money for the job that was expected to be completed with efficiencyand effective results.  This is the time where his network within the JD Edwards community had it foundation.  Shawn is quick to give credit to individuals like Chris Haraf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-haraf-b4261a5/) who would always answer when called, Michael Guerra (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-guerra-621695/) who had written many of the initial technical documents for OneWorld CNC and also answered whenever his phone rang, and Gurbinder Bali (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurbinderbali/) who was instrumental in helping Shawn understand the nuances with the HTML installation and configuration.  This is just to names a few of the many individuals who Shawn looks to as keys to his success. 

Shawn took the step, in 2004 to become an independent CNC consultant under the company name of Enterprise Solutions Providers.  As a sole proprietor, he learned some valuable lessons about business.  Many of those took him out of his comfort zone and he had to learn to make sure he found a way to get the tasks done, build relationships, document processes, and connect with others who needed the skills he provided.  He also found the value of partnerships.  In 2006 he partnered with John Basset (https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-bassett-a23328111/).  In this partnership, John and Shawn built a small business, hiring a handful of consultants and some administrative help.  In July 2008, Shawn and John expanded the partnership and join with Kevin Herrig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-r-herrig-ab8292a/).  These three are the principle founders/owners of GSI as it is today.

Currently as Executive Vice President of GSI, Shawn is working to help expand GSI’s consulting and managed services offerings for NetSuite. I would highly recommend going out to the GSI website (https://www.getgsi.com/netsuite-webinars) to see some of the exiting things GSI is doing with this emergy practice.

When asked about success stories, he wanted to share some key lessons learned from the successes he 

has experienced.  His success was more about the people with whom he had connected and less about his own accomplishments.  Here are some lessons Shawn shared from successful experiences:

- If you want your team to succeed, help them find solutions to difficult problems and let them take all of the credit...help others become the subject matter experts

- Be persistent in seeking to find the resolution to those technical issues that others cannot seem to locate, and do not hesitate to escalate issues as necessary

- Finding the right people with whom to work; make sure they share your vision and passion, are compatible with your team, and driven by a desire for excellence

- Understand that difficult times will arise and there will be struggles, some struggles may seem insurmountable, stick to what you know is right, through it all

- Be willing to take risks and allow others to push you beyond what you thought was possible

As GSI’s NetSuite practice grows, Shawn has been given the opportunity to lead that charge.  Knowing that there will be many lessons to learn, he is excited by what the future has in store.  This is just one more example where he gets the opportunity to take a risk, find the right people, help others be successful, and guide those who seek to find resolutions to difficult problems.

Shawn credits many people who have mentored him.  He looks to John Bassett who took the initial leap-of-faith to partner with Shawn as he left JD Edwards. John and Shawn invested together in ESP and began hiring their first employees.  Chirs Haraf and Michael Guerra spend countless hours with Shawn early on in his career as a CNC at JD Edwards and was critical in helping him overcome the obstacles he had learning JD Edwards from scratch.  Kevin Herrig is the catalyst that pushes Shawn out of his comfort zone, provides mentoring and helps him to succeed.  Additionally, he credits David Telford (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwtelford/) as the manager that took a chance and hired him on at JD Edwards in 2000 when Shawn had never heard of a JD Edwards as a product and didn’t even know an AS/400 existed.

You can learn more about Shawn by following him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/esperp/) and going out to www.getgsi.com to see what is going on these days at Global Systems Integrations, Inc.

Footnote:

To follow the author on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddrthomsen/

For more information on the GSI where Todd is a Sr. Client Success Manager - https://www.getgsi.com/

Success Story #2 - John Bassett

In the middle of the Midwest state of Ohio, just a bit north of center, you will find the small town of Mansfield.  This small, and thriving metropolis is home to a number of great finds.  Among them is one of the founders of a consulting firm with a reputation of being a “best of breed” in the core competencies of their foundation.  John Bassett (https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-bassett-a23328111/) grew up in the Midwest and still calls that region home.  A graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Management Information Systems.

John began his professional career working with a loan origination/title software company, helping to develop their software solution.  He then had a stint as a Novell Certified professional setting up Wide Area Networks (WANs) and Local Area Networks (LANs).  This included coding for fire alarm systems that had to maintain operational integrity in the event of loss of a user interface to trigger the alarms.  From there he became a network administrator for a company that ran JD Edwards software.  These roles among others has now led him to being a principle owner and CTO for Global Solutions Integrations, Inc., also known as GSI (www.getgsi.com). 

The history of GSI is very interesting and there will be additional opportunities to get more insight into its foundation from the other two principles in other articles.  From John’s perspective he started as an independent contractor in 2004 under the company label of Enterprise Solutions of Ohio.  Through that experience he connected with Shawn Scanlon in 2006 to form Enterprise Solution Partners (ESP).  This is where he first experienced the need to hire team members, grow a company to sustain payroll, and begin to lead people.  In 2008 ESP merged with Global Solutions Integrations, Inc. and the three principles have been driving a successful partnership for 9 years now.

Currently, as CTO of GSI, John has responsibilities of co-leading this company that is closer to a mid-sized organization and has been recognized twice by Inc. 5000 Magazine as a “fastest growing company” in the America.  However, even now, he sees one of the greatest successful enterprise solutions of his career has little to do with an actual software implementation and is more focused on giving to and sharing with others.  He was a primary catalyst in the formation of what has now become a series of free WebCasts provided by GSI that include topics around JD Edwards (use and administration), NetSuite, Database Administration, RapidReconciler, Cloud services, and Salesforce administration.  John is quick to credit other key people in making these WebCasts a success.  What he does not say (but I will), is that his leadership draws others to him and helps others around him want to see his visions come to success.  That is what has been a major contributor to this solution of successful, free WebCasts.

I asked John to give me the name of one person who has had a significant, professional influence for him.  He mentioned Thomas Schwab (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-schwab-7606326/) who now serves as President of Solutions and Services for Encore Technology Group.  The way Thomas communicates with others in a professional setting is something that John seeks to put into practice when interacting with those around him.

Footnote:

To follow the author on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddrthomsen/

For more information on the GSI where Todd is a Sr. Client Success Manager - https://www.getgsi.com/

Success Story #1 – Huey-Tien Tan

In my previous two articles, the foundation for this series was set.  Now I get to the fun part!  We get to hear from people who are out in the world, making a difference, working with and implementing successful enterprise solutions.  The first person that I get to introduce is Huey-Tien Tan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hueytien/).  Starting with Huey-Tien is an honor as she, to this day, still has a profound impact on my success.  Let’s start with some background on how I know Huey-Tien. 

March 1^st, 1998, I was privileged to begin employment at J.D. Edwards (a company that was purchased by PeopleSoft in 2003 and within less than a week Oracle announced that it would take over PeopleSoft).  This was when the OneWorld Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software was in it’s infancy.  That product is now known as EnterpriseOne.  Huey-Tien had already established herself as one of the first and best support staff for a new administrative role, coined by J.D. Edwards – Configurable Network Computing (CNC).  Huey-Tien was among the first group of 4, who were the only ones in the world to be given the title of J.D. Edwards CNC Professional.  This term of a J.D. Edwards CNC is far more than just a normal ERP System Administrator.  A J.D. Edwards CNC professional needs to be able to perform Database Administrator (DBA), Operating System (OS) administration, WebLogic and/or WebSphere administration, network configuration and administration, and many other technical tasks required to ensure that the software is communicating with the database using the right ports while also working with the Java Application Server (JAS) interface, and ensure that the software middleware is properly configured to handle expected user load.

Fast-forward to December 2017 and Huey-Tien has mastered the J.D. Edwards CNC skills like few others have.  She really is a solution architect and can troubleshoot EnterpriseOne problems with precision, speed, and accuracy. 

The J.D. Edwards software is the enterprise solution that has provided Huey-Tien with an unparalleled measure of success. This is true for her personal career, and for those companies with which she has worked over the years.  Having over 20 years’ experience with the product her experience vast.

Huey-Tien now calls Oshkosh her professional home and has been a Sr. Technical Analyst for Oshkosh (https://www.oshkoshcorp.com/) since August of this year.

When I asked Huey-Tien how she defines success, she shared that she thinks of success in two ways:
1) Becoming a subject matter expert (SME) to the point where +90% of any difficulty that may be experienced with the product is something that she can resolve without any assistance from the vendor (Oracle in this case).  Over the years, as the EnterpriseOne software has been advanced by Oracle, to keep up with leading business technology, Huey-Tien has been able to keep up with how to implement the latest technology solutions (i.e. Internet of Things, Application Integration Service, Mobile Applications, etc.).

2) Before Huey-Tien was a Sr. Technical Analyst for Oshkosh, she did a lot of work as a consultant.  In this role, the second way she defined success was when a client would seek her out for additional work after a successful project.  She saw the biggest compliment that she could have as a consultant was that the client would hand her a project charter and goals (unsolicited), and give her the freedom to define the details of the scope and implementation timeline.

I asked Huey-Tien to share with me, who would be one mentor that she would attribute to having a huge influence on her success, she did not hesitate to point out Allen Jacot.  Allen was her cohort at J.D. Edwards and was also among those first 4 to ever learn how to be a J.D. Edwards CNC Professional.  Huey-Tien mentioned that when she decided to go out on her own as a consultant, Allen handed her the first engagement and coached her to success through the experience.  Allen has always made himself available for Huey-Tien.

Consistent to what was mentioned in earlier articles, Huey-Tien wants to clarify that she does not see success as anything that is a final destination.  It is the accomplishment of the next goal that you have set before you, and as you reach that goal it is time to set the next goal for growth.

Footnote:

To follow the author on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddrthomsen/

For more information on the GSI where Todd is a Sr. Client Success Manager - https://www.getgsi.com/

What Is Success In The Workplace?

In last week’s post, I mentioned that the ongoing theme for these articles is about, “successful enterprise solutions”. I thought it would be a good idea to describe the intent of this phrase.  As with the word “success”, the phrase “enterprise solutions” can have a variety of meanings.  For the foreseeable future, I will be using, “successful enterprise solutions” as any solution (human, mechanical, technological, or otherwise) which can be implemented in an enterprise (private, public, government, or even volunteer run) to further the success of that enterprise and the people who thrive in their workplace.

As these article progress, there will be interviews with individuals who have experienced success at a variety of levels.  I will strive to have conversations with business owners, executive level leadership, project manager, subject matter experts, and more.  I have been privileged to hear and partake in many conversations where people have reflected on success in the workplace.  Most of those who have the greatest success are those who love.  They love what they do, who they are, where they live, their role in the organization, and mostly the cohorts with whom they work shoulder-to-shoulder.  They will come from a variety of functions within an organization.  Many love the people they are responsible to manage, others love the feeling of success when accomplishing the difficult tasks, most strive for excellence and want to share their passion with those around them.

The reader may find that these articles are focused on successful enterprise solutions, but the success is mostly a result of the people who are working the solutions and making them better every day.  Success is not necessarily about automation, although automation may certainly help.  Success will never be perfection, if perfection is the goal the outcome will likely be one of two possibilities:

1) If one perceives that perfection is obtained, they stop striving to get better

2) Once one observes that perfection is unobtainable, they will lose drive and determination

Successful enterprise solutions are mostly found in organizations that strive for excellence and are primarily motivated by compassion and love for those who work there. 

I hope that the reader is not “hearing” what I am not saying.  A successful enterprise should seek out solutions that drive labor efficiency, promote creative genius, pursue increased market share, and add to their bottom line.  All organizations should be focused on properly stewarding the resources at hand.  Privately held, or publicly traded companies should strive to be profitable.  If a company can help raise the standard of living for all of those employed there, or find a way to prevent layoffs during an economic downturn, these actions go a long way in showing the loving care that ownership and/or the executive team has for those who share their vision.

There are a lot of great organizations, large and small.  I hope to highlight, encourage, and motivate those who would read these articles.  My goal is to show the authentic struggles and triumphs in the lives of those who provide, implement, direct, manage, or in any other capacity currently work with successful enterprise solutions.

Footnote:
To follow the author on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddrthomsen/
For more information on the GSI where Todd is a Sr. Client Success Manager - https://www.getgsi.com/ 

New Beginnings and Success

So, where do I start?  I could start from the beginning, but which beginning?  I cannot tell you much about the beginning of my life, as I was well protected and still forming in the care and protection of my mother's womb.  I cannot tell you much about my youth that would be of interest others on this particular thread.  I could tell you about the beginning of my career, my family, my political interests, or much more.  Perhaps all of this can be shared later, under separate topics.

Let's begin with today.  Each day has an opportunity for new beginnings.  Many of us are told this many times in our lives.  Today, I want to begin blogging through a series of thoughts about "success".  The word "success" covers a broad spectrum of thoughts, categories, ideas, and perceptions.  I cannot hope to cover all of the areas of "success" in a life-time.  I can seek to uncover some areas where we can all be involved in successful enterprise solutions.

In our Western heritage and culture, and our Capitalistic leaning economy, a large number of individuals have the opportunity to be involved in the success of a company, an enterprise, or an organization.  These successes are not isolated to owners, proprietors, or those holding an executive office.  These successes are not without pitfalls along the journey (and I can assure you I have had plenty of pitfalls).  I am not holding myself up as the picture or model of success.  I am hoping to share success stories in business settings, that will instruct, motivate, and inspire others who need help in striving toward success.  Success is a journey that one will never complete, less they become complacent and have a fall from grace.  It is not a series of sprints, but rather a marathon which requires endurance.  Striving for success may cause you to get bumped and bruised, you may fall down and will need help getting up.  Success is not defined by lack of failure, but rather by consistently learning with humility, from failure and improving as you continue to move forward.

I want to be clear here.  I am focusing on organizational (or enterprise) success, but much of success in one area can and does lead to success in other areas.  People, if they are authentic, do not change who they are as they enter or leave their work domain.  I am convinced that those who are authentic have the greatest opportunity for true, long-term success.  I am interested in drawing attention to striving for success and learning through the struggles and failures along that path.

Footnote:
To follow the author on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddrthomsen/
For more information on the GSI where Todd is a Sr. Client Success Manager - https://www.getgsi.com/