What Exactly IS a “Business Technologist?”
Let's begin by defining our terms...
Way back when dirt was new and I got my first job selling “personal computers,” the industry itself was very young, and so was I.
Apple was selling the Apple ][ with great success since VisiCalc came out offering something really useful to do with it. IBM had just released their first IBM PC and computer stores were springing up everywhere clamoring to sell both.
I found a small want ad in Long Island Newsday looking for someone for “Microcomputer Sales.” I applied and was hired by a small neighborhood shop in Floral Park.
Upon starting, my new boss presented me with my first ever business cards. I opened them with great excitement, which grew to a fervor when I saw the title under my name: “Systems Consultant.” That just sounded great to me. My boss explained to me that I would be responsible for not only selling the computers, but also helping my clients learn to use them.
Clients.
For the first time in my life I was going to have clients! Actual clients. I walked around dizzied for days trying to wrap my head around just how cool that was. This was a great move, this job. I’m a systems consultant and I have clients. Yay me!
The Blush Comes Off the Rose – And I Get Lucky
It took almost no time for me to come to realize what I had to do to earn that title, and win those clients. Every night found me poring over all these great technology industry publications, soaking up as much information as I could so I could be a better systems consultant to my clients.
So the wrap on my story of the 1980’s starts with a job that pays a salary so meager I’d be embarrassed to tell you, but we did get paid “SPIFs” for every desk we sold with a computer. (I would later learn that SPIF was an acronym for “Sales Performance Incentive Fund.”
One of my clients talked about me to a competitor of my employer, who promptly offered to double my salary and pay me commissions on whatever I sold. “Not just desks?” Everything. He had just opened a franchise of one of the big early chains. There I learned a lot about why people buy these small computers, and the value they found in them. I also got face-to-face with “networking.” Because we were one of the few who embraced it early, we got to pitch it to some of the largest financial firms in New York. Heady stuff for a young guy with little experience but boundless enthusiasm.
Fast-Forward
The big chain accelerated my career growth and moved me into executive management very quickly. Then the franchise overextended by trying to grow too fast and I moved to a wholly owned chain. For a year I got to manage the highest volume computer store in the world which redefined hard work for me and made everything else seem simple by comparison. They then gave me the entire networking and services organization to run.
All of this served to provide me a well-rounded education not only in sales and marketing, but also in technology and servicing of clients, which helped me build a career that ran for 35 years until, finally, I broke out to write for and about the industry and the channel.
Digital Transformation – The Business Technologist’s Stock in Trade
In the IT industry, we’re all accustomed to overused terms. We generate them with great regularity.
One that has really proven durable over the long term is “Digital Transformation.”
Rather than bore you with the definitions everybody from Gartner to your friendly neighborhood geek have come with, here’s mine:
Digital Transformation is achieved when we very effectively apply technologies to improve business processes, solve business challenges, and make the way people live, work, and play more enjoyable and more meaningful.
Digital Transformation is not so much about technology as it is about people, and how we make things better for them.
Where does the “Business Technologist” fit in?
Most people who enter the IT channel start either as salespeople, technicians, or staff “go-fers.” Until they have more experience and perhaps some training under their belt they need to soak up as much learning as they can to put themselves on a growth path.
Some salespeople realize that customers really only want to talk with people who know what they’re talking about, and they immerse themselves in learning more about the technologies. Many technicians seize the opportunity to train, certify, and qualify to become engineers.
A surprising few come to embrace the needs of their clients and realize how much they want to solve business-relevant issues. Beyond learning about the technologies, they begin to focus on how to apply those technologies. Over time, they become experts in this and also become very valuable to clients. My choice of title for these special people is “technologist.” Rather than just focus on the tech itself, they focus on how to apply the tech most effectively.
Ultimately, the cream of this crop dramatically expand the depth of their understanding of how business operates. Much like chief information officers (CIO) who eventually graduated from being relegated to running IT departments and became a true part of the C-Level strategic executive team that runs the company, these driven individuals become “business technologists.”
So far we’ve combined technical skills with technology design skills and business operations skills. The result is some very valuable people.
Another potential ingredient to add to the mix is sales ability, enabling the business technologist to not only design and develop the applied technologies, but also to pitch them to clients with highly effective presentations. These generally become the superstar business technologists.
Finally we add the last ingredient – management skills. Now the business technologist builds their own team to take client projects from inception to implementation to institutionalization. If we don’t call these folks “President” or “CEO” of their own companies, we certainly call them “unicorns.”
Takeaways
What I most hope you take away from ready this is that there are many choices available to you, and that your growth potential is commensurate with how hard and smart you’re willing to work.
The other really important thing becomes apparent when you read between my lines.
What IT technicians, engineers, technologists, business technologists, and unicorns all share is that they are professionals. Their contributions to their client’s businesses is commensurate with that of any lawyer, accountant, doctor, architect or other professional. My hope and dream is that someday soon we will see the birth of education, certification, accreditation, and professional recognition for those in our industry who serve clients.
Business Technologists exist on both the “sell side” of IT as we’ve discussed here, and also on “the buy side” working directly for clients. There’s plenty of room for those on either side of the equation to enjoy a fantastic career. A great way to start contributing to that eventuality is to get involved in any of the many IT industry associations.