We’ve discussed MapOne and MapTo, but that’s not all our IT advisory is about. What we’re really trying to achieve at Insentra is establishing the framework to figure out what you need.
TIMESTAMP
00:07 Introduction
01:09 What have the reactions been to the deliverables from MapOne/MapTo?
02:15 How well have these maps been working? (Kinda loaded question)
03:07 What’s something you’ve learned from advisories you’ve run that you think everyone should know?
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Robert Buktenica: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Late Night Brew, where we talk brews first, and then we get around to the business after the fact. I’m Robert Buktenica, also known as Buk, and with me to round out our advisory series is Lee Foster. Lee, great to see you another day, buddy.
Lee Foster: Me too, mate. Always good to see you.
Robert: Awesome.
Lee: Looking nice in green. Looking very Irish today, mate.
Robert: Thank you. Too bad, I’m Scottish. [laughter] You know the drill. What are you having?
Lee Foster: Mate, as always, being British, I am tea, but today it’s Man Tea.
Robert: Man Tea. Are you feeling manly drinking it?
Lee: It’s a good joke, mate.
Robert: [laughs] I am having myself a Radler. This one is Canadian. Actually, great for Radler. It’s delicious, really refreshing now that it’s getting hot out.
Lee: Excellent.
Robert: On to finishing up advisory, let’s start out.
What have the reactions been to the deliverables from MapOne/MapTo?
Robert: What are some of the reactions that you’ve gotten, or how have the reactions been to the deliverables at the end of MapOne/MapTo projects?
Lee: Great question, mate. Look, for me, it’s been absolutely outstanding. If you’re familiar with things like the “Oh s**t moments” with people like– We had an assumption, we had a belief, we had a thought, and we had an idea in our mind as to where we are, where we were going, and where we need to get to.
When they realize we’ll see some of the insights that we’re surfacing, they’re like, “This has really bought some truth to our beliefs or completely debunked where we thought we were.”
In the most part, mate, there’s lots of surprise. There’s lots of “Oh s**t” but positive “Oh shit.” It’s very rarely, almost zero, where they’re like, “That’s wrong. I don’t believe you. That doesn’t make sense,” and defensive. They’re like, “You’ve actually really taken a lot of the concern out of my mind and a lot of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt, if you like, about where we thought we were and where we believe we should go. You’d given us a direction.”
How well have these maps been working? (Kinda loaded question)
Lee: The reaction is genuinely. This is amazing.
Sometimes it’s like, “This is amazing, but I need to go away and understand it in my own head,” which is fine. We have a vehicle to help them do that. Other times, they’re like, “How do we get going? I’m excited. I want to get going. Let’s start.” It really is moving away from that, telling them what they need to do with a project, to getting on board with them and going on a journey into the future as to what they need to do, and they’re excited about that genuinely.
Robert: Awesome. I can imagine some of those, either validation or, “Oh, we’ve been looking through too much rose-colored glasses.” That’s got to be interesting to experience that. You’ve been doing advisory now for a hot minute.
What’s something you’ve learned from advisories you’ve run that you think everyone should know?
Robert: What’s something you’ve learned from advisory that you feel everyone should know, or rather, what’s like a gotcha that you wouldn’t think about?
Lee: Yes. Okay. Well, look, obviously, within advisory, we’ve got products that we use, and we talk about a lot. We’ve talked about, together in this series, MapOne and MapTo. Something that we’ve learned over time is lots of people and these clients and some people within our own organization look at every hammer every nail and use MapOne as the hammer. Right? That’s not the intent. That’s not the intent, right? Not everything needs the MapOne hammer.
The true thing that we’ve learned is clients are really wanting us to advise them in a true advisory capacity, not necessarily lead with the product, so we meet them where they are. There might be very bespoke requirements. “I just need to understand this particular business problem, and I need guidance and counsel and advice on how to navigate this piece.” Really, it’s not, “This has to be a MapOne conversation or a MapTo conversation.” It’s like, “Buk, where are you? What are you trying to achieve?” If we were to take this type of approach with you, would that be valuable to you? Would it help you? It’s truly advisory rather than leading with the products.
Robert: It sounds much like, to wrap up what I thought, if I understand it right, is, “Don’t worry about the how, don’t worry about the tools, don’t worry about the journey. Tell me what you want to do, and we’ll work backwards from there and get you there.”
Lee: Yes. Correct. You’ve heard me talk. MapOne was the catalyst for advisory, and it has a very specific space as does MapTo, but that piece in the middle is really, as you’ve said quite succinctly, “Where’s the client app? What do they need? How can we help you move forward towards solving that business problem?” and then bring it back to our methodologies in the way we deliver things.
That’s probably been the biggest learning, and it’s a continuously evolving space. The advisory-type engagement we might run today could be very different six months from now, and it’s very different across the GEOs too. From that maturity standpoint, the way the US market is mature in certain ways, and the EMEA market and the AU markets, maturity levels are all different. The types of advisories have to be flexible and variable to adapt to those markets.
Robert: Awesome. No, that’s interesting. Unfortunately, on the most interesting note, that wraps up our time today. I hope everybody has enjoyed this, found it really educational, had some good drinks, if nothing else, found something new to drink to try out. If you have any questions, or you want to know a bit more about advisory, you know how to get to us. Please reach out. We’re always happy to help. Until then, cheers, mate.
Lee: Thanks for joining me.
