This is a picture of Kent Bradshaw, Microsoft Certified Data Scientist. Kent and I work together at Enterprise Data & Analytics delivering data engineering, business intelligence, and data-based solutions that help businesses turn their data into actionable information. We do not do this alone, we are surrounded by an excellent team that holds diverse skills, perspectives, and work and life experience.
In this post I want to focus on experience because I believe experience is the most valuable component a consultant brings to a customer.
When Experience Hurts
Experience can hurt if we allow it. We can become locked into that’s-the-way-it’s-done syndrome. There are new frameworks and methodologies introduced every day (literally). It’s too much for any one person to keep up with the latest and greatest and most shiny new stuff.
This is why a team delivers value to customers.
A diverse team – like the team at Enterprise Data & Analytics – is incredibly valuable. We’re not just a bunch of old guys, we are also Millennials. Our younger team members are constantly learning about new technologies and methodologies and bringing them the attention of our older team members. The energy our younger team members bring to our projects is inspiring and amazing, and…
One of the most rewarding parts of my job as Chief Data Engineer is watching our younger folks thrive, grow, and succeed.
I love how our team works together! I love it when we all pile on WebEx to solve a problem for a customer or design part of a data warehouse solution. It’s thrilling! I’m proud beyond words of our team.
Although we haven’t advertised it much, the team at Enterprise Data & Analytics has grown – nearly doubling in 2018 (so far).
Diversity in backgrounds, experiences, and levels of experience helps us overcome the downsides of experience.
When Experience Helps
Kent and I (and others on the Enterprise Data & Analytics team) have delivered many data-related solutions. I like to joke and say, “when we started working with data we had to carve our own chips out of wood!” That’s not entirely accurate, but I learned Motorola 6800 machine code in 1975 (I was 11) and Kent started when punch cards were the norm.
Having lots of experience gives Kent and me perspective. We understand the maturity cycles of technological, corporate-cultural, and even projects. Why? We’ve experienced a number of said cycles. When the inevitable “bumps in the road” occur, we don’t panic or lose perspective. We’ve likely experienced something very similar in the past, made mistakes attempting to recover, and learned the best way forward from those mistakes.
Do we still make mistakes? Yep. But fewer, and we have a deeper, richer well from which to draw experience-based, time-tested solutions. Perhaps most important to our customers, we have the confidence that only comes from recovering from a mistake (or several).
Plus, our more experienced team members have the privilege and honor of sharing our experience with our younger team members. Together, we learn from each other. I love that!
Our more experienced team members bring leadership and management experience to bear on each and every Enterprise Data & Analytics project. My experience leading a team of 40 ETL developers at Unisys gives me a deeper appreciation for the total cost of ownership of any solution (which can dwarf the cost of development – especially short-sighted development).
Snapping It Together
With our diverse backgrounds, experiences, and levels of experience, Enterprise Data & Analytics is able to deliver the best solutions, period.
How may our team serve you? We offer:
- Data Warehouse Rescue – is your data warehouse project stalled? We can help.
- SQL Server and MySQL database performance tuning, development, and support – both on-premises and in the cloud (AWS and Azure).
- SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) coaching, development, performance tuning, and training.
- Biml (Business Intelligence Markup Language) coaching, development, and training.
- Coaching is my favorite! We navigate and you fly.
- Data science to help you visualize your data, and data engineering to prepare your data for data science and business intelligence.
- Automation solutions including SSIS Catalog Compare, Catalog Browser, SSIS Framework Community Edition, the BimlExpress Metadata Framework, and more!
- Our team writes the books others read to learn SSIS.
Contact us today for more information.
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