IT Visionaries
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Wikimedia Foundation’s Knowledge Infrastructure with Grant Ingersoll, CTO of Wikimedia Foundation
IT Visionaries
02/27/20 • 47 min
After recently joining Wikimedia Foundation, Grant Ingersoll, the foundation’s CTO, is learning on the job each and every day. As the leader of a 120-person team, his opportunities to gain new knowledge from those around him are never-ending. Grant shares what he has found out so far and how that has helped him grow into his role. Plus, he gives us some insights about what projects he and his team are working on and why he has a deep love for data.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding Wikimedia’s knowledge infrastructure
- Wikidata’s innovative way of using data
- CTO responsibilities of the Wikimedia Foundation
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform
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The Importance of Scale with Blue Apron’s Irina Krechmer
IT Visionaries
11/03/20 • 46 min
Irina Krechmer has been the CTO of Blue Apron for a little more than a year. When she was hired, her objective was to help guide the company through the process of upgrading its technology stack. While that remains one of her primary responsibilities to date, but certain world events have shifted priorities in ways neither she nor anyone else could have expected. So what happens when your company goes from an important business to an essential one? And how do you properly pivot to make sure your technology stack is scalable when called upon? Irina joined IT Visionaries to discuss how Blue Apron made those changes and she explains the role food delivery services will play moving forward.
Main Takeaways
- Scale, Scale, Scale: Having scalable technology is more important than ever. When Blue Apron was hit with an influx of orders overnight, its main priority was to make sure its technology stack could handle those orders without delay. Design your stack with the mindset that it might need to change overnight and design it with the idea that you will need to make changes at a moments.
- Don’t Stop Innovating: Never be satisfied with the status quo. Just because Blue Apron suddenly had an influx of new customers didn’t mean the company could sit back on its laurels. It needed to continue to satisfy customer needs in new and different ways. This meant continuing to come up with new ideas —, like implementing the ability to order multiple boxes a week — to figure out how to meet customers’ needs
- The Beauty of Collaboration: Listen to your teammates and trust in their abilities. Never before has collaboration across teams been as important as it is in today’s work environment.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

The Power of Engagement with Workvivo CTO, Joe Lennon
IT Visionaries
10/13/20 • 44 min
When you’re six years old and your dad says, ‘Take these discs and reformat the hard drive to this computer,’ you know you’re destined for a career in technology. Those were the words Joe Lennon heard in his youth, and today, Joe is the co-founder and CTO of Workvivo, a company that is helping employees communicate with their peers, while staying actively engaged with their employer. Joe joined IT Visionaries to discuss how the platform assisted companies in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he explains why employee retention is a fight companies didn’t see coming and how it affects the future of work.
Main Takeaways
- Time to Engage: One of the big challenges facing companies is how they can get employees to engage. If employees have the opportunity to communicate with their peers in ways they are familiar with outside of work, the chances for engagement rise dramatically, so facilitating that communication is worth investing in.
- Employee Retention: As job-seeking becomes easier and more employees feel empowered to find new opportunities, companies must shift their focus to how they can align their core values with their employees. If employees don’t feel as if the company they work for is making an impact in their life and in society, they are less likely to stay with the company.
- Future of Work: When more companies empower employees with the ability to work remotely, fewer companies will be able to deploy traditional office environments. Instead, focus on giving your employees the tools they need to do their job from anywhere and at any time.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

Introducing Albert Chou, Your New Host
IT Visionaries
10/27/20 • 41 min
All good things must come to an end and on this episode of IT Visionaries, after more than 200 episodes, countless conversations and numerous trips to the top of the Apple charts, Ian Faison is stepping down as host of the show and passing the baton to Albert Chou. Albert joins Ian to give some background on who he is and his background in tech and entrepreneurship, and then the two chat about the evolution of the show during its first two years, and the trends in the IT industry that are setting the stage for the future.
Key Takeaways
- Your Host For The Evening Is: After more than 220 episodes, Ian Faison is stepping down as host of IT Visionaries. In his place, Albert Chou will assume the role of host.
- Accelerating the Digital Agenda: Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations were forced to accelerate their digital agendas. With more employees working remotely, along with more C-level executives feeling those same pains, employee experience has been put at the forefront of company needs. Digital transformations have moved from being a wish-list item to being a priority.
- Owning It: The employee experience takeover has quickly risen as a hot-button issue among the C-suite. But who should be taking ownership of a digital employee renaissance and what role does the CTO and CIO play in managing it?
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

Analyzing Risk with LogicGate CPO, Jon Siegler
IT Visionaries
10/20/20 • 38 min
If you ask most CIOs and CTOs what their biggest concern is, a majority of those leaders might respond with one simple question: How do we manage risk in a way that is effective and cost-efficient? Jon Siegler is the Chief Product Officer at LogicGate, a company that’s working to solve that very question with its platform. In this episode of IT Visionaries, Jon discusses how the platform is revolutionizing the risk-management industry, while putting its customers at the center of attention.
Main Takeaways
- Experience Matters: When deploying software, the customer experience and user interface has to be at the forefront of your thinking. As more and more CEOs become familiar with applications in the cloud, your software must adopt that same design thinking. Software has to be easily accessible and easily understandable.
- Feedback Loop: When launching products, it’s important to maintain some kind of feedback loop with customers. When LogicGate launches new products, they are tested time and time again before they are ever deployed. In order to keep these feedback loops open, deploy focus groups and continually send out surveys to constantly funnel in those insights.
- Budget Matters: Implementing security costs money, and, unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges companies face when it comes to governing risk is simply a lack of budget. Many risk and security departments lack the necessary funding in order to upscale their technology stack, which is a problem that needs to be solved with cooperation with other members of the C-Suite.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

Democratizing DevOps with Copado’s CEO, Ted Elliott
IT Visionaries
10/15/20 • 41 min
When you ask Ted Elliott what gets him excited the answer is a simple one: DevOps. As the CEO of Copado, Ted is helping companies around the world realize how DevOps can assist their organizations, even if they don’t understand how to code. Ted joined IT Visionaries to discuss exactly how Copado is helping to democratize DevOps. Plus, Ted details how his platform, in assistance with Salesforce, is aiding in the fight against COVID-19 through contact tracing.
Main Takeaways
- Code for Coders: Historically, DevOps has been for coders using complex tools that only coders could understand. Copado’s software helps to eliminate that gap by allowing a whole new set of users into the equation. By setting up guidelines and processes, Copado is empowering basic end-users the ability to push code.
- Ideating Innovation: The leading benefit for Copado’s Salesforce integration is its ability to allow the end-user to iterate once the product has been delivered. Instead of forcing companies to plan for a release date and only that particular date, now the platform can constantly be updating.
- No More Silos: One of the biggest challenges surrounding DevOps today is that far too many developers operate in silos. When you operate in isolation, your ability to innovate is limited. Instead, work with multiple teams to develop solutions that benefit the platform and the client.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

10/29/20 • 45 min
There’s no bigger buzzword in technology than the term digital transformation. Stressed with the burden of fading legacy technologies, for years companies have viewed the process of upgrading their technology stack as a luxury rather than a necessity. Now, as more employees abide by work from home orders, that directive has shifted and those transformations are at the forefront of companies' needs. Christopher Rigg is the COO of EKI Digital, a company with the mission of simplifying the daunting task of upgrading technology stacks through quantitative analysis.
On this episode of IT Visionaries, Christopher discusses the growing need for putting the employee experience first, the war to accumulate and retain talent and why low-code offerings are helping organizations around the world operate efficiently.
Main Takeaways
- Analysis by Paralysis: By taking a quantitative approach when looking at your tech stack, you can have a better understanding of the steps you need to take in order to successfully manage your digital transformation. Look past your legacy technologies and focus on the hard numbers so you can tell where you can spend money, what software you can eliminate, and focus on the areas of need.
- Retain Talent: In order to retain talent, you must deploy an employee experience that is seamless and efficient, but also one that is appealing. Focus on software that enables your employees to do their job where they are, and focus on the pieces of technology that make working remotely more appealing.
- No-Code, Low-Code: Low-code offerings are enabling organizations to operate at a much more efficient level. While engineering is a competitive field, by offering low-code opportunities, organizations can operate at a more efficient pace while deploying coders who might not be as skilled but have a better understanding of the organization
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

10/08/20 • 38 min
When you’re a multi-time CTO, like Ryan Donovan, your objective is a simple one: find the next challenge that coincides with a mission that excites you. As the Chief Technology Officer at Hootsuite, the world leader in social media management, Ryan believes he has found that challenge. Ryan joined IT Visionaries for a discussion centered around how he manages a global staff from the comfort of his home. Plus he explains the difference between being a first-time CTO to an experienced C-suite executive, and the struggles of managing scale.
Main Takeaways
- Share the Pain: When you manage a global team, make sure you are not just catering to one time zone or one set of employees. If one employee is remote, your entire team is remote. Make sure your meetings and get-togethers reflect that.
- Don’t Stop Communicating: When managing through a crisis, make sure your communication increases. When Hootsuite had to deploy work from home orders, they were in constant contact with their employees, deploying new policies and then updating employees on those policies.
- So, You’re New Here?: When you take over as CTO and you have your sights set on changing things, make that change an impactful one. Find solutions that can make the experience better for you employees and consumers.

10/06/20 • 53 min
If you ask Sasha Siddhartha, there are three core barriers that have prevented consumers from living a healthier lifestyle: price, geography, and information. Now, as the co-founder and CTO of Thrive Market, Sasha is working to eliminate those barriers in order to provide consumers with healthier options, all at the click of a mouse. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Sasha discusses the role Thrive Market plays in assisting consumers on their personal health journey and why the grocery industry is making big strides in eCommerce.
Main Takeaways
- Think Big, But Also Small: Big companies offer tremendous opportunity to learn how to build for scale, high commitment to quality, and rigorous repeatable processes, which are all things that can be undervalued with start-ups. Take advantage of the knowledge available to you about what made those companies successful and then tweak it to fit your business.
- It’s In the Details...Kind of: When you are building a company from the ground up, you can’t be focused on one particular function. Instead, focus on the big picture. Don’t get bogged down with minute details. You have to constantly be thinking about what is on the horizon.
- We’re The Three Best Friends: Finding the right business partner is key to any company's success. When you’re scouting individuals to go to work with, make sure they know the industry well and make sure they are someone you want to battle with through the good times and the bad times.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform

11/05/20 • 52 min
The information superhighway was a term coined in the 90s, but it’s still a useful term in 2020. Never before has the internet been more accessible — or more needed — than it is today. But even with technological advancements such as connected devices in most homes and accessible network connections in many cities and towns, there still remains almost a third of households in the United States that don’t have access to the internet.
Morgan Kurk is the CTO of Commscope, a company you’ve probably never heard of, but one that more than likely powers the internet lines that run to your home. Morgan joined IT Visionaries to discuss the growing digital divide across the country, how the information superhighway actually works, and why some types of data lines that power your internet connection are on their way out.
Main Takeaways
- There’s a Lag: Currently one of the biggest issues surrounding communication networks is that of latency. While the lag experienced in Zoom calls and movie buffering is annoying, the bigger issue actually revolves around software. Most internet-based software is designed to operate at the highest capacity and if networks can’t keep up, consumers are going to experience vexing results.
- A Growing Divide: Currently a third of the continental United States is without access to broadband internet. But there are two ways companies are working to close this gap: the first is through a subsidized government internet, and the second is through a series of satellites that will help provide access to more rural areas.
- Converging Network: Currently, a lot of internet infrastructures are going through a convergence. Whether it’s a network like 5G, a coax or fiber line, many of the networks these sources operate on are converging to operate more efficiently with one another.
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IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform
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FAQ
How many episodes does IT Visionaries have?
IT Visionaries currently has 472 episodes available.
What topics does IT Visionaries cover?
The podcast is about News, Cloud, Security, Tech, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Data, Tech News, Podcasts, Technology, Business, Privacy, Networking and Cybersecurity.
What is the most popular episode on IT Visionaries?
The episode title 'Wikimedia Foundation’s Knowledge Infrastructure with Grant Ingersoll, CTO of Wikimedia Foundation' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on IT Visionaries?
The average episode length on IT Visionaries is 41 minutes.
How often are episodes of IT Visionaries released?
Episodes of IT Visionaries are typically released every 3 days.
When was the first episode of IT Visionaries?
The first episode of IT Visionaries was released on Aug 20, 2018.
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