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Welcome to "INNOV-8 presents Entrepreneurs in Tech," where we delve into the minds of trailblazing innovators who have left an indelible mark on the technology world. Join us as we explore the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of these visionary entrepreneurs, uncovering the strategies and insights that have propelled them to success. From disruptive startups to industry titans, our podcast showcases the diverse stories and groundbreaking ideas that shape the future of technology. Tune in for inspiring conversations and actionable takeaways that will ignite your entrepreneurial spirit and drive innovation forward.
Bob Shami (00:00)
Welcome to Innovate presents Entrepreneurs in Tech. Today, we're delighted to have our guest, Katie Scott. Katie, thank you for joining us. And could you please start by introducing yourself and provide some insights on your tech background and expertise.
Katie Scott (00:15)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Bob, for having me. My name is Katie Scott. I am one of two founding partners of Pontum Technology Partners, a boutique strategic advisory firm where we work with helping really businesses consume, optimize, evaluate technology. We'll work with the executive team to really understand strategic outcomes from a technology perspective. And then we will see that through and equip and kind of guide their strategic resource or I'm sorry, tactical resources.
in really sort of seeing that through and executing on what it is that the business is looking to do with equipping their either customers or employees or the business in general with that technology of choice. So I'm also the president of the Mid -Atlantic CX Forum, a recently founded nonprofit professional community organization for revenue leaders and technology leaders.
to come together in a way that they have never come together before. They all really kind of own technology now. And we've seen that shift, and I'm sure we're going to talk about that a little bit here. But the reason behind starting that was we work with revenue operations leaders, customer experience leaders, and IT leaders. And we're seeing a gap pretty often in terms of kind of the ability for them to support one another and to work.
Bob Shami (01:21)
Absolutely.
Katie Scott (01:38)
best together while they all really own employee and customer experience through technology. So we'll talk a little bit about that as well. My technology background is unique. I did not go to school for technology. I have a liberal arts education degree, which I actually think has translated pretty well, just because, again, we'll get into it. But I believe that it starts with the people and then the process and technology really kind of comes through last.
to make sure that you're selecting the right one to enable those two formally mentioned things.
Bob Shami (02:11)
this is pretty impressive. I have to say, Katie, you didn't go to school for technology or tech or AI, and that's all you do. And beside it, you wear multiple hats and I don't know how do you find the time, but it's pretty impressive. I have to say we're going to get into all of that. Yes, absolutely. So Katie, is it possible to take us back in your early career and tell us a bit about what are some of the biggest challenges you faced?
Katie Scott (02:16)
No, no. Yes.
Thank you. Thank you.
Bob Shami (02:36)
and how did you overcome them? I mean just by started talking to you I already know your personality which is pretty impressive and very inspiring for a lot of females who want to get into the tech business please or anybody not just females yes.
Katie Scott (02:42)
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, absolutely. So I graduated from Gettysburg College in 2009. It was just about the worst economic environment ever. Less than 50 % of my graduating peers had full -time professional jobs. So I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I do in hindsight, I am happy that I have a liberal arts education because it really didn't pigeonhole me. I didn't have to pick a track.
like accounting, whatever it may be, and really go all in. So I've always felt very enabled and empowered to kind of pull from different pieces of my life. So with that, I started a company called Vanguard. They're a pretty well -known financial institution, financial services institution. And I started as part of one of their several kind of classes of agents who were coming in to be on the phones, talk with people who have invested. I was on the
institutional side, which is where they have their pensions, 401ks, participants through businesses. And I had to get my series six and 63. I wasn't sure if I liked finance. It was a job, but I really started as an agent on the phones, working with customers regularly. Yes, I could trade. That's a seven. Yeah. Six and 63 was really what I was doing was I was helping.
Bob Shami (04:02)
You had the stock brokerage license, you know that. Well, no, that's series seven, that's right, that's series seven. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Katie Scott (04:12)
employees of the different plans transact, understand their plans, take loans, hardship withdrawals, things like that. But I was part of a giant contact center. There were about 4 ,000 of us across the business. And I quickly figured out that I did not want to be on the phones, logging in, logging out anymore. So one of the biggest challenges I would say is trying to figure out what I actually really wanted to do. I knew I really liked working with people.
I knew I liked helping people. So from there, I quickly kind of moved my way up into the area called the helm, which is the team that oversaw, managed, ran the contact center. I thought I liked finance, so I stayed in finance. But one of the challenges that I really was struggling with was how do I apply that? Because it can be very, you know, in several different ways, either technical finance or.
But what I figured out was I really, really liked working with people, helping people. And so from there, I moved to a company called Glenmead Trust, where I was an assistant portfolio manager on the endowments and foundation side. So that is where I learned I really like, again, relationship management, working with people, trying to understand the goals they're looking to accomplish. But the biggest challenge, I would say, especially as it pertains to technology, was when I got my job at Evolve IP.
my former employer, I was hired to work in a sales role, as well as sell technology. And I'd never done either of those. So I appreciate the fact that they trusted me and gave me that shot, but that was tough. It was tough to get in front of decision makers in technology without a strong technical background. And so at that point I was sort of like, what do I do now?
I was pulling different pieces of each role that I knew I liked and I ended up at Evolve IP, but I was not well suited to kind of get people on the phone and immediately add value. So I moved over to their account management side and quickly took on some of their largest customers. And I spent a lot of time kind of right sizing or looking to really help get in there and make sure that my customers were.
getting what they wanted out of technology. And that was where I had learned to overcome the challenge of figuring out what I liked by just digging in and kind of learning how technology can map to business outcomes and how technology is so unique. Because at the time I joined technology, I was really taking, they were shifting from being a cost center.
Bob Shami (06:51)
Yeah.
Katie Scott (06:56)
to more of a proactive owner of technology beyond just the plumbing. Everyone had previously expected it to work. You hoped it was up, and if it wasn't, then you had a problem. But I had joined technology, and Evolve IP had a lot of end user facing productivity tools, which we'll get into. But it was very different the way that technology needed to work with the business. And that's where I figured out that my skills of helping people mapping.
what people are saying to actually what's sort of being used was really helpful because I equipped IT with the ability to go out and talk to the business and then made sure that we as the service provider were actually delivering on that. So that said, one of my biggest challenges was being a woman for sure in a role where I was working in a very male dominated industry. A lot of our customers, the primary contact was someone who's very technical.
So one of my biggest challenges that I'm very proud of, but I continue to kind of come up against in different areas of my career is the fact that I'm seen as non -technical for whatever reason that might be. Even though I spent a lot of time and eventually learned to the point where my tech chops really were just as good, if not better than several of the kind of people internally, it was always something that I was really kind of working uphill and looking to overcome.
And I always felt really great when I could get the respect of them once they really sort of figured out that I did know what I was talking about. And I wasn't just a salesperson. So. Thank you.
Bob Shami (08:31)
What an inspiration for other people or women or men who wants to get into the tech industry. Let me ask you a quick thing. Being a sales tech, is this what is exactly when somebody say I'm in tech sales? Like I understand somebody's I'm in medical sales. I got it. They sell equipment and certain things for doctors. But medical, is it selling softwares for companies, small companies, big companies? Is it what it is or machineries or focus on primarily software?
Katie Scott (08:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
It could be anything. Yeah.
So for me, it was infrastructure because with technology, there are line of business applications that are very specific, like an HR information system. You'll have your CRM, things like that, where it's really either unique to a vertical or unique to a piece of the business. The type of technology generally that I was selling and or solutioning for our clients was more enterprise applications and enterprise infrastructure. So all of the tools that...
Bob Shami (09:04)
Got it.
Katie Scott (09:24)
all their employees use to do their job on a day -to -day basis, from infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, to Teams voice communication, to collaboration, digital experience, backup, disaster recovery. Yeah. Yeah. I think in the best way possible, actually. Yeah. OK. Thank you.
Bob Shami (09:37)
And you learned all of this just throughout the day -to -day work. You know, I'm gonna comment on this later towards the end of the interview because it's pretty impressive. You've been in the tech world for over 15 years. And what are some of the biggest changes you've seen how business use technology these days?
Katie Scott (09:51)
Yes.
Yeah, that's a great question, especially because my time has spanned COVID, right? So that was interesting as well. But even before that, I think it was very interesting for me to join when I did because the folks who were in my industry a lot longer had been in my industry working on things like wide area networks, long distance calling, much more sort of less user impacting than where
Bob Shami (10:03)
Correct.
Katie Scott (10:25)
technology sits today in the business. Technology frankly is the business now. And so we have seen it go from kind of cost center where it's the price of doing business. It is what it is. You have your IT team, but it's really looked at as like, we don't want to hear from them unless it's broken. Otherwise be seen and not heard basically to an internal IT sort of support and service center where IT was starting to look at the employees as.
Bob Shami (10:42)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (10:55)
the folks that they service, their stakeholders, and that's still the case. However, it's even changed more so where now IT really owns a strategic seat at the table in terms of enabling the best employee experience and subsequently customer experience because this digital world, that is how your customers can or cannot communicate with you and how your employees can or cannot be empowered and enabled and efficient using the right tools to do that for you. So...
Bob Shami (11:05)
It does. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Katie Scott (11:24)
They've really, we've seen business shift as well as where IT kind of sits in the business take a very big leap. And now they are really kind of proactive business partners in owning that.
Bob Shami (11:37)
Amazing. Can we just clear the way a bit and talk about one little important thing. You know, a lot of there's a misunderstanding and misconception. I would say if our listeners, the viewers and everybody out there that, you know, first of all, you earned the title of being a tech entrepreneur. I don't care what you earned it. A hundred percent. Yes. With a certificate and you commenting on this is pretty important that a lot of people fear they say,
Katie Scott (11:55)
Thank you.
Bob Shami (12:04)
AI will take over AI. And I would say my personal opinion is AI is only a tool. It's going to help us advance to make things better, faster, and get us to where we need to be at a faster pace. And all we need to adapt to it and learn it, learn it, not be afraid of it, learn it. Your comment as a tech entrepreneur, please.
Katie Scott (12:20)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would agree. I think it's coming whether or not we want it to. So people who are wishing that it wouldn't or have other reasons for be it their type of job, like for example, Gartner, they're a research company. I can understand why a research business would be less hesitant to say it's coming as quickly as it is, but it's already here. And so I think people need to embrace it and it will just really, it will take away things that
Bob Shami (12:33)
Yes.
Katie Scott (12:57)
we were having like labor shortages, for example, that will be helpful. I think it will become a tool of how you really do X job with AI as part of it. And that is really going to be where we see this moving. I'd say it's really an interesting time because AI and automation have been around, they've been part of different vendor solutions that our customers use who are now kind of still wary about AI, but...
The biggest thing we're finding is back to that sort of IT and where they sit in the business is who owns AI within a business. And so that is what we're seeing is sort of one of the biggest challenges as does IT 100 % own it? Because it's really the business that needs to say what could be automated that would be helpful that can cut costs and give time and efficiency back to your human capital for more strategic things. However,
Bob Shami (13:30)
Hehe.
Katie Scott (13:52)
IT is, it's all new to everyone. So that has been one of the biggest things that we've seen from a challenges perspective is who kind of owns fully the, what do we do? How do we do it? Does it make business sense? How are we calculating where we want to start first? But yeah, absolutely. I think it's not going away at all. In fact, for the Mid -Atlantic CX Forum, we just had our first summit that last week and we had Dr. Steve Andreal, who is the Thomas G. Labreck.
Bob Shami (14:08)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (14:21)
professor at Villanova University's technology school. He teaches AI and machine learning and his presentation was incredibly eye -opening and thought -provoking for everyone who came just because I think the first step is really ripping off the band -aid and saying it's coming whether or not we like it now what do we do about it and how do we sort of work within that and do it responsibly.
Bob Shami (14:44)
Very insightful. Thank you for the information. Absolutely. You know, something that our viewers and our listeners and whoever else comes across the show, that's definitely very helpful. You worn lots of hats from client success to leading contact centers. How have these different roles you played influenced the way you approach TIC advisory?
Katie Scott (14:46)
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, great question. Significantly so. I think that my background, having sat in those seats, allows me to really understand a little bit more and empathize with where those stakeholders are coming from and their reliance on technology. And we focus a lot, pontum means bridge in Latin, and we really focus on bridging those kind of gaps internally that are natural.
Bob Shami (15:25)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (15:37)
and making sure that the key stakeholders of each of the business units that are going to rely on this really kind of have their voice heard and that we're making sure that instead of seven unique projects where digital marketing team goes out and finds one thing, quality and assurance find something else, customer support find something else where we're really kind of helping IT understand where the lens through which those different stakeholders are looking.
and folding that in, in a way that IT is really focused on supporting what they need to support day to day. So it has significantly impacted it because I saw a pretty big gap in terms of technology partners and distribution that existed when I worked in my former role. And really this was the biggest area is that no one knew how to guide the technology team to then identify the right people to engage.
Bob Shami (16:31)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (16:32)
when to engage them in the evaluation, to make it beneficial for everyone, and then really kind of how to make sure that you're capturing and delivering on what they need. So it has, I think, been pretty significant for me just coming from more of a business background and then folding the tech in versus starting with just the tech and then kind of backing in the business into that.
Bob Shami (16:54)
You focus on helping businesses use CX, EX, AI, tech solutions effectively. What are some common hurdles that you see and how do you help businesses get past them?
Katie Scott (17:00)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Great question. I would say not to be kind of continue to repeat myself, but the alignment is one of the biggest hurdles is the fact that these are different projects that touch so many different areas of the business and are not really kind of able to be unilaterally made in a vacuum decision. That's is it secure? Is it infrastructure? Will it work with whatever else we have? Yes. Those were really kind of the questions before.
Bob Shami (17:15)
Yes.
Katie Scott (17:34)
Some of the biggest challenges we see is it's a chicken or the egg, right? So who drives what is prioritized? Is it the business users or is it the technology team saying our vendor platform is end of life, now we're ready to go look at something? So really some of the biggest hurdles are internal alignment.
And then prioritization alignment on what's the priority and how to kind of make sure that you're able to deliver on several of those projects versus having to choose. I would say that's a big piece. I also think that a lot of businesses are relying on traditional distribution methods. So meaning how they actually get and procure technology. There were your traditional methods like value added resellers, managed services providers.
Gartner, things like that, where they have left a gap in the market for businesses in the mid -market, smaller enterprise who need, technology has changed. So they need a different type of partner who really understands a cloud -first solution and what it means to understand each end user, how they use it, what the dependencies are, the process, things like that. It's just very different than choosing infrastructure. So we see that pretty often.
Bob Shami (18:35)
Correct.
Katie Scott (18:51)
Companies are relying on their value added reseller who might also be their incumbent to help them kind of evaluate and select a new strategy. And so those are some of the challenges we're seeing are just really internal alignment as well as leaning on partners that can't help them get that internal alignment. So that's really where we focus. And that's why it's interesting because technology is so important, but it's really the last piece in our opinion.
Bob Shami (19:18)
Got it. Interesting. You started MidAtlanticCX Forum to connect with CX and tech leaders, many companies you started. What made you want to create this forum and how is it growing since you started it?
Katie Scott (19:25)
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, great question. So working with our clients regularly over the last 15 years, we've seen that gap exist that I've kind of talked about. And we've seen that impact the employees and their ability to sort of be enabled through the end user applications that are being selected for them, as well as in the customer experience. And after speaking with a lot of our clients about where they're going,
how they are sort of interacting, how are they gaining alignment, how are they collaborating with these other areas of business that they're all really reliant on to deliver. There was nothing like that. So there are things that are specific for CIOs and IT leaders or help desk leaders. There are specific professional groups for CX leaders, but there's nothing that really kind of brings them together. And since that's such a core component of how we help businesses and there's a long kind of education cycle getting
them involved and having them think about a different way to evaluate, to optimize technology and to source technology, we thought that it would be a great idea if we could sort of bring them all together as peers so that they can start to collaborate, learn together, be exposed to different technology that normally a lot of CXM revenue leaders would have to wait for their technology teams to bring to them, usually a little bit late in the evaluation cycle.
And so we saw that gap. We asked quite a few of our clients if they thought there would be value there. We got a resounding yes. So we started that about two months ago, actually. And so we're excited to kind of fill that gap and have the endorsement of those other groups that have been well established, like SIM, Society for Information Management, HDI Philly, CX Professionals, where they're saying, yes, this is a need to bring everyone together.
They were traditionally very siloed. And now there's a lot of interdependency there. So that was the reason behind it, as well as if we can help more companies than just the ones we're actively working with by creating this type of community for them as well. That would also be really great from an education perspective. So that was how we started it. Yeah.
Bob Shami (21:33)
Mm -hmm.
Impressive. I mean, how did you come up with this? That's a separate question.
Katie Scott (21:53)
Yeah, happy to share that with you. But it's been really exciting. We have now seven people on our advisory board who are overseeing our mission. And those are CIOs from companies like Vanguard, from large businesses who have said, yes, this is a need. So we're excited about that. And we just had our first nonprofit launch last Wednesday. And
Bob Shami (22:02)
Yeah.
Katie Scott (22:19)
We didn't even have enough seats in the room. So that was both stressful and awesome. Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
Bob Shami (22:21)
Wow. Congratulations. I mean, I see you have an issue of finding what is wrong and what's needed and you go after it. For somebody who didn't even go to school for tech or business strategies or not, you went for liberal arts. You took the simplest way in school, but you chose one of the most difficult ways in life and business world. Amazing. And you succeeded in it. You know, kudos to you. Definitely. I would probably see a master class coming soon by Katie Scott.
Katie Scott (22:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
I did not. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
First, we have to make sure I can execute on all this, right? But yeah, yeah, master class next, absolutely.
Bob Shami (22:50)
Heheheheh
Definitely, you're going to inspire a lot of people once they watch this episode, a lot of young entrepreneurs, women and men, and who's going to be inspired by your path and your knowledge and how did you carve all of this and consume this knowledge. So everything is possible in life. From what I see, and the message that we're giving away from this episode, besides all the interesting, insightful information that you
Katie Scott (22:59)
Thank you.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Bob Shami (23:22)
telling us and we're still going that it's anything is possible. You just got to put your head to it and mind to it and just do it. Don't be afraid. Embrace it. Amazing. Amazing, Katie. We need to have a book out or no? I'm going to do the book for you. We need a book from Katie Scott and we need a master class. Absolutely. Yes, definitely. Much needed, much needed and will deserve to you. Putnam Technology Partners.
Katie Scott (23:30)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. my gosh, no, no, not yet.
Okay, all right.
Yes.
Bob Shami (23:48)
you bridge the gap between C -suite strategies and a particular tech solution. How do you differ from traditional IT service providers and consultants?
Katie Scott (24:01)
Yeah, great question. So we believe that there is, so right now there are kind of the landscape that's out there are the research firms, the leading market research firms, the traditional kind of brokers that were more doing telecom, more network, things like that, where they were getting several quotes and helping kind of diminish the amount of administrative burden that that is for businesses.
There are your traditional consultants, right? Those big four that will work with you on the strategy, hand you a pretty expensive book, and then say, go figure out how to execute this on your own. And they generally really only point to Gartner, who's best to breed, but they don't really map what's best for you. And then lastly, there's the value -added resellers.
and managed services providers and those folks more engaged on the tactical level, day to day, support less strategic. So we believe that we differ in that we bridge sort of the strategy you're going to get from an eccentric center, from a large consultant, but we actually map it to what's best for you versus best of breed. And then we oversee the tactical execution, meaning we...
ride with the customer through successful deployment and optimization, and we're completely vendor neutral. So we sit on the client side. There are no one specific brands that we've staffed engineers for, and therefore, that's really like our cloud solution, which you'll find is the case for several of these MSPs and VARs. So I believe that we're unique in our approach because we, A, have vendor side.
experience. So we've been there. We know the contract terms that you can press on. We know who is and is not delivering. Our background, having run a contact center and being kind of a key stakeholder and leader, consuming this, understanding what they care about makes us unique. And then the fact that we really can be that Accenture without just pointing to whatever Gartner's top providers are, we can map them to who's really going to deliver.
for our customers and then we stay with them. So we also have resources that provide continuity for our clients as well on an ongoing basis because with technology turnover is very rampant as is the, well, you get into the install and you have a project manager and they say, they ask a question that immediately is not exactly what was talked about resale.
Bob Shami (26:25)
Yes.
Katie Scott (26:37)
So we make sure that we're really kind of being that voice of continuity and making sure the customer gets what they were promised and all of that's kind of vetted in advance. So.
Bob Shami (26:47)
You specialize in productivity apps and end user computing. How do you help businesses use tools like MS Teams and improve both employee and customer experiences?
Katie Scott (26:50)
Mm -hmm. We do.
Yeah, great question. So we focus a lot on the employees and enabling them. So that's where we focus on EX and user experience, employee experience. We'll do things like start with how they work today. And instead of starting with whatever the tech platforms are, understanding where the users have adopted, where the integrations need to be, and then what type of environment they're working in.
Bob Shami (27:24)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (27:28)
So we will really kind of consolidate the solutions that they're working within to make sure they're not toggling three times when they really don't need to. And we also make sure that we focus on enabling them with the tools that they're already used to using if we can, while also delivering on the customer experience. And what I mean by that is during evaluations, oftentimes people are looking at a customer experience contact center platform. And so they focus on what features and functionality do we need?
Bob Shami (27:44)
Hmm.
Katie Scott (27:57)
to give the customer this type of interaction without really looking at what that means then for the employees on the other side of it. So sometimes that includes increased actual level of effort for employees to then create that reduced level of effort that they're looking for from a customer perspective. So we're looking at everything holistically and our experience in equipping.
Bob Shami (28:16)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (28:20)
the end users to use these technology platforms to then deliver the customer experience is what makes it unique and allows us to sort of make sure that we're starting with how their employees work because we believe that enabling your employees is how you actually provide the best customer experience and that you don't have to pick one or the other.
Bob Shami (28:38)
True, very true. Helping clients pick the right platform for revenue related workflow sounds crucial. And can you share a story about how choosing the right tech made a big impact for a client, please? If you can.
Katie Scott (28:52)
Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to think. I'll give an example of it now as Pontum versus in the past. But we have a client that grew pretty rapidly during the pandemic based on what it is that they did. However, they were set up in a way from a technology platform process contracts perspective where everything was completely separate. And it really just
Bob Shami (29:08)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (29:21)
drove all the inbound leads or interest from a new sales revenue perspective to a website. They captured the information and that was kind of the end of that because they had so much demand that they didn't need to worry about hunting or nurture or reaching out and kind of pushing people through that sales cycle. So when we came in, we needed to work with them and completely sort of shift the way that their process worked. The people that were then, you know,
owning each piece of the process as well as then the technology so that they had more of a digital experience platform and less of just like a lead capture. And that was the end of the story. And this way they were able to have more insight in terms of where their leads were coming from. They were able to more easily move people through the funnel and get signups as well as kind of.
Bob Shami (30:06)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (30:13)
connect with people no matter what platform they were on, be it social media, be it their website, if they called, regardless. And that made a very significant impact on their ability to continue to scale, even though they had sort of set everything up when they were in a feast and then things changed and it was more of a famine scarcity sort of mindset. So we've helped them set up in a way that the systems and their process will drive and capitalize on their leads.
for them as well as make sure that they have it set up for if and when they do have that, you know, exponential demand again, it will still be set up in a way that allow them to nurture and things like that. So that's one example.
Bob Shami (30:53)
Interesting. Your tagline for Petanum is bridging people, process, and technology. Can you expand a bit more as to what makes your approach different than traditional IT distribution partners or consultants?
Katie Scott (31:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. So we, traditional IT partners start with technology because they have their technology that they know, that they support, that they have a bench of engineers for. And so generally they're going to start with the tech and then back into everything else where the people processing technology is a big piece of why we started this business. And what we saw was a need, which is...
starting with the different key stakeholders and end users and understanding how they work, where they work, what the company is expecting them to deliver on, what are their KPIs, what are the tools that they've been equipped with, and then also working through and outlining their process so that we understand does the process need to change too. Because often times people will buy a new technology and think that's going to solve everything and frankly it just won't.
unless you make sure that your people are enabled and you understand what they're looking to do with it and what they're going to be expected to deliver on with it, the process that they follow, the process that, you know, from an integration perspective, and then you kind of finally map that technology back to it. If you start the other way around, it will absolutely fail, which we have seen several times. And that's what...
Bob Shami (32:15)
Mm -hmm.
Katie Scott (32:29)
tends to happen when you start with maybe a value -added reseller or a managed services provider who has their tech. That's where you kind of go first. And then they figure out, well, that it worked for only 70 % of our users. So we really start with the people that are going to be using technology back to the, it's not plumbing anymore. This is going to be what they're using, touching, feeling all day long to do their job. So we understand what their jobs are, the process that they currently follow.
and make sure that any process that would need to change to support this sort of future proof technology as well is vetted out and that the dependencies are called out. And then finally, we really get their customers buy in on these are the stakeholders that this is in fact what we're looking to get out of them each with this use of this technology. Yes, those are the processes that they follow.
And then lastly, we say, OK, these are the two or three providers that we'd really be able to deliver on these for you.
Bob Shami (33:27)
Very good advice. Very good advice, Gator. Yes, very good. Well said. What advice you would give young entrepreneurs who are just starting out in the tech industry or who want to get into the tech industry? Please, if you can share some of the insights and some of the to do or not to do. Do's or not do's, yes.
Katie Scott (33:41)
Yeah, good question.
Mm -hmm. boy. I feel like mine was such an untraditional path or non -traditional path, but I would say focusing on learning how technology can create business outcomes. And that is what I think makes my approach different and more future -proof because regardless of the technology, if you understand that businesses are made up of people,
Bob Shami (34:05)
Yes.
Katie Scott (34:10)
who have to use this and that they're looking to achieve an outcome. I think it doesn't necessarily matter where you start as long as you're not looking at widgets and features and bells and whistles and you're really kind of looking at what are the outcomes that businesses were looking to achieve. That's something that will provide that foundational core of allowing you to sort of then figure out within that what technology makes the most sense for you. So that would be probably my.
As well as never give up trying, pull from different pieces that you liked and don't stop and feel like, I don't know, I've already tried, you know, I feel like I'm this far into my career. I should probably just keep going. For me, I'm very, very happy that I never stopped saying, okay, well, I like this part of this job, but I really didn't like this piece. So what can I do with this? How can I kind of continue to build and use those as building blocks?
Bob Shami (34:37)
I...
I think we have the new title for the book, Katie Scott's book, the Untraditional Path to Technology. That's it. That's it. Yes. Yes, definitely. Very untraditional. But as you said, feature proof. Feature proof. That's it. Is there anything that you would like to talk about to mention that's coming up in one of your businesses, one of your companies that you want to mention to our listeners and viewers? You want to share with us? Yes.
Katie Scott (35:08)
Yes, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Absolutely.
Thank you for asking. I would probably ask people to check out the Mid -Atlantic CX Forum. Even though it's called CX, it is for revenue leaders, operation leaders, and it's all through the lens of IT. I would ask them to check that out. And if it makes sense, reach out. We have our next gathering of our membership group on June 13 in the King of Fresher area outside of Philadelphia. So I'd ask everyone to check that out.
Bob Shami (35:56)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I have to say it has been a perfect interview. Amazing. You know why? Because of you. Yes. Yes. My pleasure, Katie. Well, Katie Scott. That's what I meant. You, Katie Scott. First of all, you know, all great things has to come to an end. I definitely enjoy extremely in this interview, extremely insightful, and not to mention highly, highly motivated, really highly motivating interview. Very.
Katie Scott (36:01)
Thank you. Because of you, but thank you very much. I appreciate your interest.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah.
Bob Shami (36:23)
Absolutely. And I'm sure our listeners and viewers will get a lot of insightful information and will enjoy this interview. Thank you for joining us today on Innovate Presents, Entrepreneurs in Tech. Be sure to connect with us on social media. Until next time, keep innovating and stay curious and take care. I appreciate it. My pleasure.
Katie Scott (36:31)
Thank you.
Take care.