Build IT Together Detroit Wrap Up

Thank you to all who joined us at Grand Circus in Detroit for Build IT Together on October 1, 2013. We're happy to say it was a success with over 20 different companies' CIOs, and Technology Directors coming together to share experiences and collaborate on emerging trends and ever present needs. Congratulations to Eric Spicer, of Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, and Jeff Schefke, of City of Oak Park, who won themselves a Nexus 7 tablet and Samsung 303 Chromebook, respectively. We have already received great feedback and look forward to being involved with future collaboration events.

Philip MacKethan of
University Liggett School testing Google Glass

We all gathered at Grand Circus early Tuesday morning and were able to experience brand new technology including Google Glass & a Double Robotics robot. It was fun to see attendees' reactions to wearing Google Glass, trying out the voice commands and hear the discussions about use-cases for the new form factor. Many discussed practical applications of the device in their environment, from streaming technical specs and hands-free information look-up to training videos for new employees. When it came to the Double robot, the ability to interact with a space and group over long distances seemed to be the most valuable feature.

Getting to Know Each Other

Build IT Together opened with a unique survey allowing attendees to anonymously compare their current IT environment to the rest of the group. This allowed everyone to reflect on areas of improvement, while simultaneously providing connections to others at the event with which to network and learn from. Those in small companies were able to compare their current setup with that of a mid-sized company and glean insights for how to scale. Larger companies were able to see what helped smaller companies remain nimble.

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Sessions & Take-a-ways

Breakout sessions were available in 4 topic areas including: data backup & business continuity, helpdesk, mobility & collaboration, and change management. Below are some of the highlights.

Anytime Anywhere

• The demand for mobile technology and collaboration tools is so great that when IT departments don’t give them company tools many end-users use their own, putting company data at risk from both security and ownership standpoints.
• Google Apps for Business was highlighted as a tool that many attendees’ organizations have found success with while Office365 and Vibe were mentioned as potential alternatives.
• With the paradigm shift in tools and functionality from personal productivity to team productivity, change management and solid training curriculum, particularly for older end-users, are essential for good adoptions rates.

Beyond Backup

• Randy James from Greenleaf Hospitality Group provided some insight into the decision-making process he went through when moving to a tapeless backup solution with replication to the cloud
• Many attendees had questions about specific implementation points, including bandwidth throttling, hardware configurations, Disaster Recovery scenarios and data classification
• It was noted that upwards of 60% of business data now resides on laptops, of which 30% are stolen, lost or damaged every year
• Long-term, the feeling in the room was that other cloud-based services would reduce the exposure to data loss and that only mission-critical and data-intensive applications would remain local to businesses

Change is Hard

• Managing expectations of the Executive team and explaining the change management plan for a project is a best practice and worth the extra effort, increasing strategic thinking about the benefits of the new technology and ensuring training for staff during adoption is budgeted for.
• Utilize the early adopters within your staff from many departments to vet new technology is very helpful for smooth rollouts. They will be social champions when the roll-out occurs as well as training agents for co-workers within their team.

Helpdesk Panel

Daniel Jefferies leads the helpdesk panel including
Brian Miller of Davenport University,
Michael Cross of Greenleaf Hospitality Group, and
Hans Erickson of Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce

• Measurement is key. Tracking time to close of support tickets as well as number of tickets closed on first call are most important data points in tracking improvements and creating a great opinion of the helpdesk among end-users.
• Optimizing helpdesk personnel by hiring for attitude and training for aptitude is a best practice.
• Investing in helpdesk personnel training to ensure a majority can close any ticket, regardless of complexity, on the first call is better than having a more traditional L1, L2, L3 tiering structure in securing praise and satisfaction from end-users.
• When there is a high opinion of the helpdesk within an organization the entire IT department benefits from higher user satisfaction, supported and increased access to budget resources.

Wrap-Up

Build IT Together was a great experience and we look forward to being involved in other collaboration events. There were plenty of great ideas shared, techniques, and strategies. More than we can put into this wrap-up article. Please share your favorite moments & ideas you found valuable below.

Why we want to Build IT Together

My experiences with the Kalamazoo entrepreneurial community

For the past couple of years I have had the privilege of being involved in the growing entrepreneurial community in Kalamazoo. A series of events and meetups over the course of that time, sponsored by Startup Zoo, have brought many like minded folks together, caused businesses to be formed, partnerships to emerge and has brought me into the lives of some fantastic people.


Many of these people are now my friends and StartupZoo meetups and events have become fun opportunities to get together with those friends and talk about what we love, technology and entrepreneurship. I’ve also gained very meaningful support and insight from other entrepreneurs and business owners in the area like Jen Randell of Maestro and Matt Mace of Blue Granite.

Why can’t we strengthen the IT community?

Sounds like a lot of fun right? It has been. But the experience has gotten me thinking. Why can’t we form the same connections and collaborative relationships in the IT community here in Southwest Michigan.

I am convinced that we can.

That is what our Build IT Together event is all about. I want to bring the IT community together to form relationships, learn from each other, and have a lot of fun doing it. I hope that this can be the start of many more IT community focused events, not just presented by Newmind, but presented and hosted by other IT leaders in the area as well.

Speaking of which, I’ve got some new announcements about the event to share with you.

Meraki added as sponsor

I’m excited to announce that we have added Meraki as a sponsor of our Build IT Together event. Meraki has been leading the networking equipment space in recent years with their cloud connected and managed network equipment. Their recent acquisition by Cisco validates that leadership. They will be sponsoring our 4th workshop and I am hoping that we will be able to send you home with some opportunities to get some free Meraki gear as well.

Strong participation from the community, Thank You!

Finally, I want to thank the community for the strong participation and support they are already showing for the event. We have confirmed that IT leaders and staff from Cornerstone University, MPI Research, Kalsec, Greenleaf Hospitality, Davenport University, the City of Kalamazoo, and many more, will be in attendance.

Thank you so much for supporting this event and the IT community in Kalamazoo. I’m really looking forward to meeting you and learning from each other on May 21st.

Daniel Jefferies is the founder of Newmind Group. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Newmind Group began as a small, regional IT company in 2003. Since then, we have opened offices in Charleston, Minneapolis, and Silicon Valley, and have grown in scope and size to become a national provider of cloud computing solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our specialty is moving legacy systems to more cost effective and reliable cloud based systems hosted by Google, Amazon, and Rackspace.

Newmind named to Michigan 50

It has been a busy couple of months at Newmind.

The team is growing, business is expanding and our friends in the press are saying kind things about us.

On top of all that, we are proud to announce that Newmind has been named to the Michigan 50!

The “Michigan 50 Companies to Watch”, or "Michigan 50" for short, is a list of remarkable second-stage companies from across the state. Winners are selected by Michigan-based judges from the banking, economic development, entrepreneurship development, industrial and venture capital communities.

Needless to say, we are honored to be named among such a great group of thriving companies.  It was also a lot of fun to learn that our neighbors Gazelle Sports and Genemarkers, here in Kalamazoo, were also named to the list.

"Our team is passionate about helping our clients in Michigan and across the country use technology to experience more productivity and enjoyment at work."  said Daniel Jefferies, founder of Newmind.  "That obviously means we work extremely hard.  As a team leader it is so fulfilling to see the work of Newminders, and the success of our clients, recognized on the Michigan 50 list."

"Michigan is a great place to start and grow a business and one reason for that is the work of organizations that feed the entrepreneurial community like those who underwrite the Michigan 50."  continued Jefferies.   "Thanks to the Edward Lowe Foundation, MEDC, Consumers Energy, and all the other underwriters."

So what is next for Newmind?

Well, as we have in the past we want to continue to assist and support the IT community, especially here in our hometown of Kalamazoo.   We are inviting IT leaders and staff to our Build IT Together event on May 21st at the Radisson Plaza Hotel.    The event is designed to get IT leaders and staff from the community together to share and compare solutions and best practices.  We are really excited to see what we can learn from each other at this event.