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Spotlight on Senior Manager of Ivanti Technical Support, Alison Howe

Fri, 31 May 2019 16:56:57 Z

This week we are spotlighting Alison Howe, a Senior Manager of Technical Support based in our Ivanti office in Daresbury:

Q: What is your role at Ivanti?

AH: I head up the Technical Support teams based in Daresbury and joined Ivanti at the end of 2016. The frontline team currently provides support to our customers, partners, and the field in Europe for Environment Manager, Performance Manager, File Director, Management Center, Application Control, Patch for Windows/SCCM, and Security Controls. The global backline team enables the frontline teams to develop technically; they work on complex situations and focus on continuous product improvement through working with Engineering and Product Management.

Q: How has your career developed?

AH: I started my career in 1989 by joining a small, UK-based software company writing accounting and investment software for pension funds—all the words which can make a 20-something glaze over. Working in a small company was a great start for me, straight from university and gave me exposure to everything from designing, coding, pre-sales, consulting, user training, and telephone support.

As the business grew, I chose to focus on technical support and built out a team. After seven years, I took a break for six months to go travelling across India and reassess what I wanted to do. At that point I committed to Technical Support as it gave me the buzz of technical challenges, it’s fast-paced, and I like the element of customer service, so I joined a much larger global software company called Hyperion Solutions. It was at the time when customer support was being recognized as a specific skilled role and not an add-on to consulting or development teams, so I was part of a new team which we then built to cover Europe from two locations for many products and in multiple languages.

Over the next 10 years the company grew by acquisition, which meant that we were in constant change with new products to support and new locations, and I spent extensive time in India building a new support centre. The make-up of the teams I managed during this time changed in line with the business, from country- or region-specific to product-specific, each with their own challenges.

In 2007, Hyperion was acquired by Oracle and I was tasked with leading support in the EMEA region for the Hyperion-branded products, with a team of 80 engineers and adding a new support centre in Cairo. In 2011, a strategic review determined a restructure based on the needs of customers changing and their requirement for “follow the sun” support as they offshored their own teams, so I took on the role of global domain lead, owning the 24/7 global support service for a set of products and technologies involving Engineers in many global locations.

In 2016, with more restructure due, I decided not to evolve into a new role but to take 12 months off and re-evaluate, not even sure that I wanted to continue to work in IT. It allowed me time to consider what I enjoy and what I wanted out of a new role and what sort of company I wanted to work for. I chose Ivanti—and never completed my planned time off.

Q: Why did you choose to work for Ivanti?

AH: I knew that I wanted to be able to make a difference in whatever role I chose, not just turn up for work, and to be able to apply the skills that I had gained over the years. Ivanti is expanding and, with that, there are opportunities to impact change that comes with growth. I really enjoy working on process improvement. A few years ago I self-funded my Certified Lean Six Sigma Yellow and Green belts, and I can get involved with that, just by seeing something that needs doing and getting on with it. I have been a Certified Support Manager for 20 years and I wanted to be able to use that experience, which I have been able to do as we have evolved the support centre in Daresbury. I really enjoy enabling others to develop their careers, which is encouraged at Ivanti, and I have had a lot of satisfaction from that since joining. I made the right choice.

Q: How important is work-life balance to you?

AH: When my daughter was born in 1998, I took 10 weeks off. My role was not one which was considered applicable for part-time, and lack of flexibility meant that I never dropped her at nursery or school, never went to a performance or school trip, and would often be away for up to a month at a time. That was far from balanced, only achievable with the help of grandparents. This is why I have been focused on ensuring that work-life balance is high on the agenda when building teams.

Times have thankfully changed and we work for a very enlightened company. I would encourage everyone to make use of the flexibility that we have, whether that be as a parent or carer or volunteer, or for your own well-being. Family first is a great way to think of it, but family includes yourself. My daughter is away at university now but the flexibility is still important to me, for those days when something needs doing at home, starting work later in the winter so that I can have a walk in the woods with the dog before work without it being dark, leaving early for a concert or knowing that if anything crops up with my family I can be there.

Q: Can you describe Ivanti in three words?

AH: Collaboration, Change, Appreciation

Q: You’ve been very involved in the Ivanti Women in Tech Community. Why do you think a diverse culture is so important for businesses?

AH: Diversity brings with it diversity of thinking, which in a culture like ours where challenging and questioning is encouraged, brings innovation. I’ve worked in teams with differing levels of diversity, and the most enjoyable teams have been those where we have brought together lots of different cultures. You expand your knowledge of the world around you through hearing about different life experiences and viewpoints and the workplace is much more fun.

Q: What advice would you offer younger women as they start their career in technology?

AH: Take the opportunities as they come along; throw yourself into change and see it as an opportunity to try new things and gain new skills. Don’t be afraid to stop and take a side step into a new role and to question whether you are happy. I’ve been very lucky in my career that I have worked for growing companies that have offered me challenges and career development. If I were starting out now, I’d still be looking for those attributes in an employer, but I would add flexibility to it. Look for a company like Ivanti that encourages a work-life balance, including flexibility—not just documented or regimented by policy, but really believes in it.

Q: What are you reading right now?

AH: I always have at least three books on the go. “The Garden of Lost and Found” by Harriet Evans is a dual time line (present day and early 1900s) about three generations of women facing challenges of their time. “Pandora’s Boy” by Lindsey Davis, one of a series set in Rome around 80AD about investigator Flavia Albia, told in the first person and gives a perspective of the traditional Roman world from the viewpoint of a woman. I’m also re-reading a series of old favourites by Michael Bond (of Paddington fame) about Monsieur Pamplemousse, a detective turned food critic who solves mysteries with his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites.

Q: Any other thoughts for our readers?

AH: Change in our industry is inevitable. It can be exciting and challenging, very rewarding, and often tiring. As I get older, I reflect on how much things have changed in Support, let alone the wider IT industry, and it can be mind-blowing. Back in the day, we had one phone on the wall, not knowing who was calling before you picked it up. We had no concept of logging cases via the web; no email; no remote viewing of a customer environment and having to visualise it instead; sending upgrades to customers through the post on disks along with a heavy manual; having to go on-site at the drop of a hat to fix an issue; shared mobile phone for on-call that was the size of a brick; and worst of all, being expected to wear a suit. Who knows what it will look like in 2050. Think of the change which has happened in my 30-year career so far. One thing we know for certain, it’s going to be exciting. Enjoy it.

Spotlight on Director of Enablement, Eddie van Ravesteijn

Mon, 06 May 2019 22:45:09 Z

This week we are spotlighting Eddie van Ravesteijn, our Director of Sales Enablement. Read more to find out more about Eddie and his thoughts on the value of enablement and gender diversity in technology.

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

ER: I have worked in IT since 1998. I have a technical background and spent 10 years working as a technical consultant on IT projects for large companies, with a big focus on Microsoft infrastructure products.

In 2008 I came to work for Ivanti (RES Software at the time) as a pre-sales consultant. Pre-sales is the best job in the world. It combines your technical skills with commercial and communication skills. It is a job with a fantastic playing field selling technology to customers with a high focus on business value rather than technical features. In this job my love for the sales profession started to grow. I learned how important it is to be able to translate technical features into business value. Technology without value is… well… just technology. Technology translated into business value is: cost reduction, higher productivity, better compliance, optimal security etc… In my current role, Director Sales Enablement, I try to get our sales organization into this state of mind. Always put value first!

Q: Why is enablement so important for our business or any business?

ER: Enablement is really important in our business because software sales is tough. We do not have a product that you can touch, smell and feel. And sometimes business value is not that obvious. We tend to stay in our joint comfort zone, which is the technology that we sell, and with that, we tend to focus a lot on what a software product can do technically.

We want our sales people to focus on the bigger story behind the technology. Our sales people need to learn to understand what companies struggle with and what their business challenges are. If we can help solving business challenges with our technology and we can clearly state the difference in cost or the improvement in security or productivity, then, suddenly how we do it is less important. This sounds easy, but it is really not that simple. The market is continuously evolving. The challenges of tomorrow are different than those of today. Sales enablement’s role is to work with Product Management and Product Marketing, to identify those ever changing challenges and build messaging that addresses those challenges. Another important part of our role is then to take this message and teach our sales organization how to address this with our customers and partners.

Q: You get to meet almost all the new starters in EMEA. How do you think diversity helps an organisation?

ER: I have worked with four women in a team of five (!) at a point in my life where my manager was also female. This might have been one of the best teams I worked with in my career.

At Ivanti we often see women in the traditional roles of marketing and HR. I think it would be great to have more women in technical and sales roles. Diversity brings a different vibe. One does not need to be a scientist to see that atmosphere in a mixed environment is different than in male or female only environments. I think I’ve read research somewhere that showed that women are better sellers than men. Maybe because they are better listeners or intrinsically more interested? It strikes me that so few women choose a sales role in IT. The biggest young sales talent we had in an inside sales role in the past few years was a woman! Coincidence?

Q: How do you think organisations could better support diversity?

ER: Tough question. Organisations are trying to crack this nut for years and I don’t pretend to have the wisdom to solve this. In our society we still see typical women’s jobs and men’s jobs. Does it have to do with an intrinsically difference of interest? I just see less female candidates applying for a sales role. Nevertheless, I believe it starts in the top of an organization. Executive teams should be equally balanced. Today, many executive teams are primarily formed by men. How diverse would it be if we had more female VP’s of products, or female Sales executives or even CEO’s, who could be a shining example for other young women in our business?

Another interesting statement I heard recently and that I felt was very valid, is that organisations need to seed technology to young people. We can influence interest for technology when women are girls. Meaning that if we want a broad spectrum of women in a multitude of roles in tech today, we should’ve started influencing via education 20 years ago. So maybe it just takes time and we should focus on young people and bring the love for this absolute fantastic technology business to girls in school.

Q: Who inspires you?

ER: I do not have one special person that inspires me. I get inspired by colleagues and friends and family that I look up to. And I look-up to people when I can learn from them. People that can bring me something, that make me change my opinion, or the way I handle things. People that make me realize that at age of 48 I really haven’t learned everything there is to learn. Sometimes that is a brilliant young kid, sometimes that is that sales manager that never loses his temper and sometimes it is my wife who makes me realize that not everything is black and white.

I love presenting on stage and I can admire good presenters and performers. Sometimes I don’t even listen to what they say, I can just enjoy the suppleness and the subtleness and timing that good performers show when on stage.

Q: What are you reading or binge-watching at the moment?

ER: I do love Mob series like Narcos, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos and everything Quentin Tarantino. Currently I am watching Casa de Papel on Netflix. A Spanish series about a group of criminals lead by a very smart man called “the professor”. They do not only rob the Central Bank, they actually lock themselves in and work the money presses for days to print money. Their philosophy: we didn’t really rob anyone, because this money that we printed ourselves did not belong to anyone yet. Of course everything falls apart, but enough, go see it for yourself. I don’t binge-watch. My max. per day is 2 episodes because I would forget what happened in the first episode when I watch four more.

If you had to describe Ivanti in three words, what would they be?

Family, Fun, Still-a-whole-lot-to-do

Anything else you would like to say to our readers?

Maybe this is boring, but this is my personal rule for life: Design your own life and career. Learn and be inspired by others. Be open for other opinions and influences, but do take matter in your own hands and never let anyone tell you that something is impossible. We are able to achieve a lot in private and corporate life if we believe in what we do, we are dedicated and we are having fun along the way. And that last thing is most important of all. If you have fun, you can take on the world!

Meet Lina Mughal, Ivanti Woman in Tech and CRN Women in Channel A-Lister

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 09:29:58 Z

I have worked with Lina since she joined Ivanti in July 2017. Prior to her time at Ivanti, Lina spent five years working with an Ivanti reseller, Softcat.

Lina has always impressed me with her ability to juggle multiple tasks and build and maintain strong relationships, both within and outside of Ivanti. She and I can often be found chatting in the kitchen about diversity and the women in tech movement, and so I was absolutely delighted when she was listed in the CRN Women in Channel A-List (pg. 47) along with her colleague, Isabelle Le Tissier.

It is because of these things that I wanted to share some of her wisdom and advice with you all.

Q: What can we do as individuals to make the industry more diverse?

LM: The industry should be proud of the initiatives it has championed  thus far, but it needs to have a more intersectional approach. Rather than just focusing on women in tech, more should be done in terms of encouraging people of different genders, sexualities, races, and religions.

This can partly be achieved through blind recruitment, which overcomes the biases—unconscious or otherwise—that exist in recruitment. The same goes for promotions.

That being said, we mustn’t fall into the trap of tokenism. Women should not be hired just to fill quotas; they should be hired on merit—merits that are often overlooked by decision-makers in favour of men. Women in tech initiatives are great, but they should be run with a view to bring women to the table rather than becoming insular.

Q: What is the one thing you would do to encourage more women into the  IT sector?

LM: A lot of the issues we have  as a tech workforce is simply that there aren’t enough girls and women studying STEM subjects at university or school. By stressing diversity in STEM, schools can instantly improve the prospects of the industry.

At the same time, there is also a misconception that all roles in the industry are technical, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I studied English at university and started working in the industry with little technical knowledge, but have gained confidence and have been up-skilled internally to become well-versed in technology.  As in any industry, there are roles in departments like marketing and HR that are often stronger areas for women.

A huge boost as well would be to have more diverse boardrooms and leaderships. The ability to look up to female decision-makers makes being a woman in tech that bit easier. 

Q: What are your three top tips for women looking to start a career in IT?

LM: 1. Persevere and work hard. It’s a challenging but rewarding industry. 

2. I encourage women to develop their creative and social skills. IT impacts all aspects of our lives and different perspectives are vital.

3. Be ambitious! The first programmer was Ada Lovelace, a woman. She proves you can do it!

Q: Why do you support CRN’s Women in Channel campaign?

LM: I am supporting this campaign because it is an opportunity not just to recognise the amazing women working in technology, but it also celebrates those who are inspiring the next generation. It’s not a tokenistic pat on the back—it’s showing women of all ages that success is possible.

Women in the Channel: A Q&A With James Anderson, Channel VP

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 20:14:25 Z

I’ve had the pleasure of working with James Anderson for many years and seen how his career has taken off at Ivanti. James has always managed diverse teams and so I thought it would be great to have a bit of chat and get his thoughts on gender diversity and the women in technology movement.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at Ivanti.

JA: I am responsible for our Alliance and Partner Channels across EMEA. That involves recruiting, enabling, and building longstanding business partnerships that deliver revenue and profit for both ivanti and our partners

Q: You’ve always been supportive of the Ivanti Women in Tech movement. Why is that?

JA: I guess I am lucky that I have a mindset in which I strive not to prejudge anyone based on any criteria, be it gender, race or religion. The Women in Tech movement is a great way for us to raise awareness of inequality in our industry but also to encourage women to join it. Building more diverse skills, we can only raise the bar in terms of what we deliver.

Q: You have a pretty diverse team, not only in terms of gender. What do you think the benefits of this are for the channel as a whole?

JA: I do indeed have a diverse team, but I don’t see it like that. I see it that I have a fantastic group of individuals who are great at what they do. They each have strengths and weaknesses like we all do, but for me it’s all about skills, experience and mindset. If someone has a good mix of those things, then you should hire them no matter what their gender, race, or religion is.

Q: How do you think technology businesses can attract more women into channel roles?

JA: I think the channel in the UK has some very strong women as key contributors to their respective companies, but the balance can always be improved. I think technology companies could do a much better job of addressing the balance across their business rather than focusing on just channel. Key would be more diverse leaders in their organisations in sales and other male lead areas like engineering.

Q: They say people buy from people. Do you think diversity engenders trust in the customer, and does it help influence a purchasing decision?

JA: I would hope purchasing decisions are not based on diversity bias, but I think if a company has a diversity in its recruitment and talent management plans, it will potentially have a more open and inclusive style of working thus breeding an environment where trust is built more easily. Trust will definitely influence purchasing decisions.

Q: What skills do you need to work in the channel for a tech company?

JA: You need great people skills for sure. A good balance between technology interest and commercial acumen makes for a strong partner manager. Then you need to throw in collaboration, creativity, and conflict resolution skills. Above all though, the people I see who are most successful are the ones who are honest, transparent, can deliver on their promises and are consistent in how they act.

Q: There is a lot of talk about “lad-culture” in technology. Is this something you have witnessed and, if so, how have you personally dealt with it?

JA: I haven’t witnessed too much “lad-culture” in my career. However, I have witnessed a clique-driven culture and that often can progress into a closed group mentality. I always do what I can to encourage team members and colleagues to be inclusive in their attitudes and behaviour.

Q: Who inspires you?

JA: Anyone who is striving to make the world better for others inspires me, whether that is major leader in industry or government or someone in your community who is battling mental or physical illness and still managing to get through life being able to provide for their loved ones.

Q: What is the last book you read and what are you binge-watching on Netflix?

JA: I am a pretty terrible reader in that I don’t put the time in to read consistently for pleasure. The last book I would have read cover to cover would be something I read to my kids at bedtime, and although it’s hugely rewarding, it’s not the same. The last book I read for myself was probably The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. I love a crime thriller.

As for Netflix, I am currently struggling to find a decent series to work through. We live in an age that there is too much choice. However, I am looking forward to the final series of Game of Thrones and the new Billions that are coming soon.

A Q&A With Ben Geleit

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 22:46:57 Z

One of the many things I love about working at Ivanti is the way, as an employee, you are enabled to work hard, get recognised, and work your way up the career ladder. I have benefited from this myself but, more importantly, I see it going on around me all the time.

One of my favourite examples of this is Ben Geleit. Ben joined the company five years ago working in my team as an Sales Development Rep (SDR). Ben has an amazing work ethic, is very talented, and soon started to work his way up the career ladder to the role he is in today.

Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at Ivanti?

BG: I am currently an Enterprise Territory Manager and have been with the company for just over five years.

My day-to-day role entails a mixture of looking after our valued existing customers and engaging with new business prospects to see if the Ivanti solution portfolio can resolve challenges their organisations are facing. I have the privilege of being able to work in the office, in the field, or from home whenever necessary. My role is very flexible.

I get to work with every department in Ivanti, from professional services, support, finance, legal, product, marketing and more. So the knowledge I learn from people working in these roles has given me a deep understanding on how an organisation of this size operates.

Other involvements within my role include recommendations to our productmanagers from feedback I hear in the field. This is a rewarding side of the role as recommendations I make on behalf of customers often get put into our products. I also work closely with marketing to drive campaigns to attract new business and II assist with training new members of the team to get up to speed quickly.

If you had to describe Ivanti in three words, what would they be?

BG: Supportive, Rewarding, Family

How has Ivanti helped you grow professionally?

BG: Upon joining Ivanti five years ago, I came in as an SDR (Sales Development Rep), fresh out of an 18-month stint as a new-business hunter role at another company after graduating from University. At the time, I sat under marketing, however, the marketing and sales leadership teams combined, assisted me in growing the necessary skills to hunt for new business and succeed in doing so. After 18 months of success in the role, I was promoted to an Inside Sales Representative which was an official move to the sales department – a desire I had discussed during the interview process when considering Ivanti.

Within Inside Sales, I learnt to manage existing customers and was closely mentored by the sales leadership team, again, to manage accounts and navigate potential up-sell and cross-sell opportunities effectively. After another 18 months in this role, I was lucky enough to be progressed again into a Corporate Territory Manager role.

Corporate Territory Management was another step-up and again I was mentored closely by my Sales Director and others. I was put through a valuable training course and picked up further skills necessary to not only manage and navigate existing accounts, but to engage effectively with new business prospects also, taking the cycle from the very beginning, to the end and beyond into a fully managed account.

After another 18 months, I was promoted in January to Enterprise Territory Manager. Although similar to a Corporate role, the organisation sizes I am able to engage with are now much larger and the nuances of the engagement from prospect to prospect and customer to customer is varied. I have been continually and am today, supported, mentored and encourage to further succeed.

In short, Ivanti has helped me greatly with progression - I am often used as an example of what to expect when joining Ivanti and the progress that is possible when succeeding in your role.

Where do you see yourself in three to five years?

BG: If I haven’t yet earnt enough to retire, I’d love to still be at Ivanti. I appreciate I’ve still got a hell of a lot to learn and I don’t see a better place to get the guidance and mentorship needed to continue to grow and become a professional in my role. I’d love to win the Global Sales Rep of the year award at our Sales Kick Off in Salt Lake City within the next 5 years – ambitious yes, but it’s actively encouraged here at Ivanti.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career as an Enterprise Territory Manager?

BG: Don’t be daunted by it, believe in yourself and no one will question what you believe you can achieve. The ride will come with extreme highs and dreaded lows that knock you back, but if you keep on ‘chipping away at that block’, with the right guidance and hard work, you’ll get there and it really is a very rewarding place to be.

Any final thoughts?

BG: If you’re considering Ivanti, it really is a family culture. If you’re successful in getting a role, you’ll be given the time and guidance to succeed in that given role. The management team are supportive, motivational and knowledgeable. This goes for any role at Ivanti, not just sales.

#TheWholePicture Campaign Encourages Women to Showcase Their Motherhood on LinkedIn

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 23:22:47 Z

I recently spotted an interesting post on LinkedIn by Sarah McGregor, creative director at Cummins&Partners in Melbourne, Australia.

Sarah has launched a campaign called #thewholepicture whereby she is encouraging parents to ignore the questionable advice given by many, and include pictures of themselves with their children on their LinkedIn profile picture.

I love this idea! I think it is very sad that women feel they need to hide their family from their work life in order to progress. Personally, I love to hire parents as I think they hone parenting skills which can be so beneficial to the workplace. My sister is mum to a wonderful 13-year-old girl, and some of the skills I have seen her develop over the years include multitasking, time-management, communication, problem solving, and even crisis management! As an employer, what’s not to love?

So, I soon became obsessed with this fabulous #thewholepicture campaign and, through a mutual contact, I reached out to Sarah. (Don’t you love the powers of social media?)

This is what Sarah had to say when we had a chat, and I warn you now, there is some outstanding advice here.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

SM: I'm a creative director at an advertising agency in Melbourne called Cummins&Partners. I'm also Victorian co-head of Australia's course for aspiring creatives, Award School. I've been working as a creative for about 18 years in both Australia and London for agencies including Leo Burnett, Karmarama, Y&R and Grey London on some of the world’s best-loved brands including Honda, Bonds, Peters, Nintendo, Virgin, Emirates, Cadbury, Schweppes, General Mills, Yellow Pages and Marriage Equality.

I love my job because I feel like I’m always learning something new about a client, a bit of technology, or humanity at large!

We love your campaign #thewholepicture! Can you tell us a little more about it, and why you felt it was important to highlight?

SM: It was a simple idea that asked working mothers to change their Linkedin headshot to a photo of themselves and their children in the lead-up to International Women’s Day 2019, using the hashtag #thewholepicture.

It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, because I remember being very hesitant about starting a family when I was younger. I think many women feel that way, especially when you see the depressing statistics around the "motherhood penalty" and the number of women in senior positions, which in my job is only 3% worldwide. I wanted to create a show of visibility and solidarity both for other working mums, but also for younger women, who like me, might be wrestling with the concept of having both a family and a career.

Family is obviously very important to you. Do you have any tips for creating the perfect work/life balance?

SM: I always say that your job will take from you precisely what you are willing to give, so you need to set parameters. I leave at 5:30 p.m. unless there’s a problem, and I "leave loudly" as a former colleague put it recently–meaning I don't sneak out or hide why I’m leaving (to pick up my child). It’s another example of the visibility I think is so important, and that I was trying to create with #thewholepicture. I keep my mail alerts on, which not everyone likes doing, but it means I can respond to a question or make an approval quickly, so I’m not holding anyone up if I’m not in the office. I also live close to my son’s nursery and close to work, so I’m very lucky that I can maximise my time in both places without any commute (I know this is a luxury!).

If you could choose one word to describe your strength, or superpower, what would it be?

SM: Kindness. I think empathy is so important in this job. And I firmly believe you catch more bees with honey. Kindness can be a true motivating force. Ruling by fear is both outdated and ineffective.

Who inspires you?

SM: Brave people. I love that we’re living in an age where it’s admired to be brave. To stick your head above the parapet and stand up for what you believe in, to be your true self, to proudly swim against the tide of the status quo.

What are you currently reading and bingeing on Netflix?

SM: I have an epic to-read pile and I also have a book buying addiction, so it’s not looking good. I will probably end up on a Netflix reality show about hoarders!

But next on my list is A Gentleman in Moscow (I love anything historical and Russian) and on Netflix, Crashing, because I am slightly obsessed with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and I’ve yet to see it.

Anything else you would like our readers to know?

SM: If you believe in something, get it out there. You don’t need a big budget or media space, just write a LinkedIn article about it (for free!). Chances are, if you believe it’s true, then others will too.

Diversity and the Women in Tech Movement With Andy Baldin

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 22:27:32 Z

Andy Baldin is Vice President, EMEA at Ivanti. He has worked in various roles in the technology sector for the last 39 years, and during that time, he has lead many successful teams.

I have had the pleasure of working on Andy’s team for just over eight years, and throughout that time, Andy has always been a big support to me by encouraging and coaching me. He is also very supportive of the women in technology movement, so post-International Womens Day, I wanted to get his thoughts on diversity in the IT industry.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

AB: I feel I have been in the IT industry forever. Started out as a programmer, realised I wasn’t that great at it, and moved into support, then management. Spending a lot of time with the sales and marketing teams, I spent time in both sales and marketing roles, which included two stints in the USA, one for one year, the other for two. Now I lead the EMEA sales team and work with great people, so it’s fun.

On the personal side, I’ve been married for 35 years, have a wonderful daughter (33) who’s a vet, and a rather large dog (Akita) called Richie. I like playing golf, but don’t get enough time to get any good at it. Overall, I can say I have a good life, and have had the privilege of meeting some great people of all genders along the way.

Why do you support the women in technology movement?

AB: For one thing, diversity is good for business. But on a more personal note, I am a father to a wonderful daughter and I want her to live in a world where true equality is part of the natural order of things.

Talent has nothing to do with gender. I have had the pleasure of working with many talented women over the years and one that immediately springs to mind is Susan McGuire, Ivanti’s Global VP of Field Marketing.

Tell us a little bit about the benefits of having a diverse team.

AB: Diversity is so important, and not just gender diversity but ethnic, background, etc. Research shows that diverse teams are more successful, and I see this in practice. Diversity leads to different perspectives and different ways of thinking that drive successful businesses, and I think businesses that do not embrace diversity are missing a trick. Having a diverse team means that you have hired based on talent, rather than on other factors.

We hear a lot of talk about “lad-culture” in our industry. What do you think about this?

AB: Unfortunately, there is still a lot of this around the tech industry. You often see examples of this around IT exhibitions. How many times do you see women dressed in what could be described as “sexy outfits” to entice men on to their stands? And do we see men dressed similarly to attract women? Would that work? I have also seen an MD try to flick an elastic band at an HR director’s breast during a management meeting. This type of behaviour is neither professional nor appropriate.

How do you think this industry can encourage more women into the sector?

AB: First of all, hiring managers need to hire on talent and passion – not gender.

But it all starts at a young age. We need to help girls identify and develop an interest in technology. It is great to see Ivanti getting involved in STEM projects, especially when our female staff volunteer for STEM clubs and STEM days. It really helps young girls to have a female role model and learn about the many ways they can enter into a career in technology. I’d also like to see more of the men in our industry spread that same message. If anyone has an interest and desire to work in the technology sector, they should be encouraged and helped to make that happen.

Who inspires you?

AB: When asked this question, the first thought that I had was the people around me, with whom I work and interact. There are so many great people in our organisation and the ecosystem that we work in, it makes me feel proud to be able to spend time with them. Outside of this, Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar have both been a significant influence in how I approach life in general.

What are you reading right now?

AB: Outside of data for Ivanti operational reviews, the last book I read was Journey To Ixtlan by Carlos Castanada. I also have Stop Snoring The Easy Way on my reading list. Currently, I have just started to To Kill The President by Sam Bourne on a recommendation from a colleague.

Anything else you’d like to say to the readers?

AB: We live in a world that has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. There is greater acceptance of the differences between us all, and I hope that this continues. Everyone can play a part in making this a better world to live in by being acceptance of the diversity of human beings. If we stop judging and start working from the point of view of acceptance, then we will communicate more effectively, see each other as real people, and create a better world for ourselves, our children and the future generations.

As the French say, “Vive la différence!”

Women in Tech Spotlight: Chelsea Pirente

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:08:45 Z

Chelsea is a great example of one of the many talented women working within our customer success team. Chelsea has over 20 years experience in the tech industry and has worked within project management and customer success at Ivanti for the last four years.

Chelsea and I don’t work together, per se. In fact we have the Atlantic Ocean between us and Chelsea works in the customer service team, whilst I am in marketing. But I was lucky enough to meet her through the Ivanti women in tech community, and her passion for the women in tech movement and STEM education came shining through.

Q: Why are you passionate about empowering women in technology?

CP: feel there are not enough women in the tech industry. There is a false assumption among women that you need to have a technical degree or to be extremely technical to work for a tech company. Throughout my career, I have realized there is tremendous value in working hard and striving to understand the technical side of the business. If more women understood their capacity to learn the basics of the technology, they would find there are so many opportunities.

I had a great mentor early in my career who was both a skilled businesswoman as well as technical-savvy enough to become very successful. Women can bring a different perspective to a team and really add value to any organization.

Q: What advice do you have for women working to break into or advance in the technology industry?

CP: Understand your personal strengths and strive to improve those strengths. Don’t be ashamed to be a women in a technical industry if you don’t know all the answers. Strive to grow each day with your knowledge and don’t ever be afraid to ask questions.

I asked so many questions (and still do) on technical configurations or products to continue to grow my technical knowledge. Sometimes women feel intimidated by others and don’t ask the important questions to help themselves grow. I feel that understanding my own limitations with technical issues has really helped me in my career.

Q: What's your take on the aspect of sparking a greater interest in technology/STEM among girls and young women?

CP: I feel so passionate about STEM and helping young women understand how much impact they can make in any organization. I have two children and have always worked in the tech industry. When they were little, I would volunteer on career day and demonstrate the concept of packet loss with Voice over IP at the time by using large packets and have them get “lost” in the room. I realized if you helped them understand the basics it seems less intimidating. I have mentored young women as a project manager and really discussed my non-technical role in a very technical company. It’s great to see the interest they have in the business side and understanding there are options inside a tech company outside of a developer or an engineer.

Q: Could you please share a little about your STEM volunteer efforts?

CP: I volunteered a few year ago to mentor High School students. I had a young woman sit with me for ½ a day and experience what life is like at Ivanti. She asked a series of questions about my job and my technical training. I also volunteered recently at Stem Fest held yearly in Utah for school age kids. It was great to see all the curious young minds. I also sit on the STEM committee to help plan upcoming events.

Q: Do you have any personal experience of gender related equality issues?

CP: I have been lucky enough to personally not have had any gender inequality issues in my career. I have tried very hard to work hard and be dependable in my job. I try to give 100% to my job, my team, and the organization I work for. With a good work ethic and a good attitude, gender equality isn’t the issue; it’s about who is the best person for the job.

Q: Do you think women are under-represented in technology roles?

CP: Yes, women are definitely under-represented in tech roles. I feel like many women assume they aren’t technical enough to work in the tech industry. I have personally proven this wrong. I have a degree in sociology and started working in the tech industry right out of college. I was terrified I wouldn’t have the right answers when talking to customers or partners. I quickly realized if you write all your questions and acronyms down and research or ask the right people, you learn quickly and don’t feel intimidated to have the technical conversations.

Q: What are you reading right now?

CP: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Don’t forget to follow @TheTechieGirls on Twitter to get involved in the conversation and stay up-to-date on women in tech events, news, and initiatives.

Why We Support International Women’s Day

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 11:54:56 Z

Every year on March 8, the world comes together to celebrate the wonderful women in our lives on International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a global event which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while calling for an acceleration of gender parity.

Believe it or not, International Women’s Day started with its first gathering in 1911 and was supported by over one million people across the world, including the Suffragettes – those are some serious shoes to walk in!

Every year, the International Women’s Day campaign has a different theme. This year, the theme is #BalanceforBetter. This is particularly exciting for us here at Ivanti, as we know that diversity in the world of technology is so important.

#BalanceforBetter

There are so many reasons, as a software company, we should encourage diversity. The first is the general lack of software engineers. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71% of the 1.4 million computer science related jobs available in 2020 will remain unfilled. Since women make up 50% of the population, it’s easy to see that by encouraging more women into the field, we can start to fill those open roles which are so critical in today’s world. We also see this in cyber security where a skills shortage is widely reported.

The second reason is that nowadays, we design code using human-centric strategies, so it makes sense that having a diverse team will result in the design of products and services that reflect the needs of our diverse customers.

By the way, when I say diverse, I don’t just mean gender. Diversity is crucial in gender, age, background, ethnicity, etc. There are many studies which show that diverse teams provide many advantages, such as the benefits that come from multiple perspectives, knowledge and ideas. In case you need another reason, according to Harvard Business Review, diverse teams solve problems faster.

Ivanti’s Women in Tech Movement

Over the last 12 months, a team of passionate people at Ivanti have been working on our Women in Tech project. We are very excited to be able to support International Women’s Day 2019 today as part of our drive for diversity. We are passionate about equality and diversity and, in particular, supporting the Women in Tech movement.

We have written many blogs about how to attract and retain women in the technology industry and we still have a lot of work to do. But the fact remains that diversity can only be a good thing for any organisation, and International Women’s Day helps shed more light on this important topic.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions about women in tech, diversity, and #BalanceforBetter. Join in on the conversation by tweeting us @TheTechieGirls.

We’re also getting involved in the official International Women’s Day #BalanceforBetter campaign. Take a selfie with one of these cards (or make one of your own) and tag us @TheTechieGirls! We can’t wait to see your #BalanceforBetter commitment!

Q&A with Matt Heller, Ivanti Sales Development Representative in the U.K.

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 23:42:18 Z

Want an inside peek at a sales development success story? Read this quick Q&A about Matt Heller who is based in Ivanti’s Bracknell, U.K. office. He’s recently been promoted and is on track for continued success and fulfillment.

Q: Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at Ivanti?

A: I am currently a Sales Development Representative (SDR) at Ivanti and have been with the company for 18 months.

As an SDR, my day-to-day role is to be the first point of contact with prospective customers and to follow up on inbound marketing leads, as well as create my own outbound contact with potential new customers. Following this initial point of contact I then qualify opportunities across the Ivanti portfolio and distribute to the Field Sales team to follow up on. I also regularly attend technology and marketing events as an Ivanti representative, and work closely with our partner network to train the Account Managers and team together to discover new opportunities.

I have just been promoted and am due to move roles next month into an Inside Sales Representative role. I’ll move from the Marketing team into the Sales team and into a quota-carrying role. This is the career progression I was driving for since joining Ivanti and was a major motivation for wanting to join the company.

Q: If you had to describe Ivanti in three words, what would they be?

A: Motivational, friendly, challenging.

Q: How has Ivanti helped you grow professionally, and where do you see yourself in three to five years?

A: Ivanti has provided the opportunity I was looking for following my departure from my last company. Even before joining Ivanti, the potential career paths were laid out to me and discussed in depth to make sure my reasons for joining were clear for both me and the company. Since joining, these paths have only become clearer as I’ve progressed and achieved in the SDR role. I have consistently been supported in various activities that will aid my progression to the next role, which allows me to grow outside of achieving my targets in the SDR role. This has been a huge benefit.

In terms of my three-to-five-year plan, my target is to join the Field Sales Team following working as an Inside Sales Rep, and ideally in five years I will be in an Enterprise role as I want to keep pushing forward and growing my skill set in this area. I believe the level of support and professional growth is available at Ivanti to allow me to do this.

Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career as an SDR?

A: I would advise individuals to truly lay out the goals they have and the career progression they are looking to undertake. The SDR role is a great way to learn the company through and through, both products and personnel, which will stand them in great stead as they look to move up through the company. However, the SDR role is a challenging position. SDRs must make sure they are focusing on the targets set in front of them and achieving these first and foremost. The position is the perfect place to get to know everything about Ivanti, and even more so, to grow both personally and professionally.

Q: Any final thoughts?

A: The SDR role is a great starting point for anyone looking to begin a Sales career or looking to move into a company that has defined career paths. Without question, Ivanti will follow through 100 percent, and support the individual through whichever avenues they wish to pursue. The company and management are adaptable as well as motivational, meaning that you can discuss various options in the company. Whether that be a progression through Marketing, Sales, Channel, or Technical, the options are vast.

Ivanti Is Hiring

From Beijing to Boston and Bracknell to Bangalore, our employees build lasting customer relationships that foster trust and confidence in Ivanti software solutions. Learn more about our open positions. We support each other and welcome the diversity of backgrounds, education, experience, approaches, and ideas.

What We Have Learned from Ivanti’s 2018 Women in Tech Campaign

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 01:11:23 Z

This is a time of year where people often look back and contemplate their achievements and so I have been spending a fair amount of time, whilst drinking tea and eating mince pies, thinking about how much the Ivanti Women in Tech team have accomplished this year.

I have had the best time working on the various women in tech projects and feel like I have learned a lot so I thought I would share some of these learnings with you.

You can never have too many Women in Technology Communities

When we first kicked off the Women in Tech Twitter account and campaign in 2018, I wondered whether it would be deemed unnecessary. After all, there are hundreds of WIT groups on Twitter alone, but I have been encouraged to see how many people have followed @TheTechieGirls (almost 1000) and how many people interact with us daily. One of our biggest achievements was launching a survey (with over 500 responses), followed up with a Women in Technology Survey Report, which has had a lot of press coverage which is great to keep diversity top of mind! It is great to see that people want to engage with us to talk about diversity.
Not everyone likes the Women in Technology movement

I have spoken to a few women who have not wanted to get involved in this community. Their initial reaction to WIT was that it is a women vs men type of activity. Nine times out of ten, I’ve changed their minds when I’ve explained why this community is important, how it is very much the opposite of Us vs Them. We genuinely strive to create a gender partnership and some of our activities are very much open to men. We do keep some of the networking events female only, but that’s because we believe that sometimes you need a safe space for women to share their experiences.
It’s not difficult to get men involved in the WIT community

We ran an event with the Service Desk Institute earlier this year around Gender Diversity in ITSM. This was a roundtable style event where encourage the attendees to share ideas and experiences. I was really happy to see how many men joined this event and gave us a really interesting and different insight. The output of this event was a really interesting Gender Diversity Report authored by the Service Desk Insitute.

I am seeing even more men working for Ivanti, taking an active role in the women in technology community and working hard to recruit more diverse teams.
Women supporting women is invaluable

I love the concept of women supporting women and I have noticed a change over the last year. In the past (a long time ago), I had experienced some situations where women were incredibly competitive with each other, to their own detriment. What I see now, at Ivanti and the wider community is women supporting women and I LOVE IT! One of the golden nuggets I have picked up throughout this process is; if you are not confident enough to brag about your own accomplishments, find a brag buddy to do it for you. I have been sharing this sound advice ever since, with anyone who will listen, and I am seeing women put this into practice all the time.
You don’t have to work in a technical role to be a WIT

One of my other concerns when I started this campaign was that I would not be taken seriously, as I do not have a STEM related degree and I do not work in a traditional tech role. I have been so pleased to see this community bring together women in very traditional tech roles, but also women in other roles within the technology industry such as HR, marketing, sales, project management and many more.
Organising Networking events is hard!

Speaking honestly, one of the things we have struggled to execute to perfection is networking events. You’d think that would be one of the easiest things – I am a marketer so events are what I am good at right? The trouble is that we get lots of registrations for events but we get a lot of no-shows on the day. I totally get this, I am guilty of registering for events and then not turning up, but it’s a real shame and I think it is an indication of how we don’t always put ourselves first. Networking activities and learning events are really important for our personal growth, but we often move them down the priority list for other life or work-related needs. One of my New Year resolutions will be to go to four events next year that will help me both career wise and personally.
Being part of the Women in Technology movement is empowering

I can honestly count 2018 as one of the best years of my working life. I love my job and the fact that I also get to put time into this project is amazing. Through Women In Tech networking, I have met some wonderful, inspirational women who have become firm friends. Time and time again, I have seen the support women give each other at events. Through our #MySuperPower campaign, I have heard from so many women who have described how empowering they found the process of thinking about their strengths. In addition to this, my confidence has grown tremendously and I put that down to the support from all of these fantastic women.

For now, I am looking forward to a nice Christmas break, including more tea and mince pies and then, I can’t wait to get back to work to continue this very inspiring project!

How Can the IT Industry Encourage More Women Into Technology?

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 22:03:03 Z

This is a very important question and was number six in our recent Women in Technology survey.

I decided to try and get some different opinions on this question and so have collated some thoughts and comments below.

Pay women the same as men

73% of respondents chose this answer

This is a topic which comes up time and time again in many different industries, not just technology. Nearly 74% of our respondents cited this as the main way companies can encourage more women into technology.

Sally Bogg from Leeds Beckett University is not only an ambassador for women in technology, she is the winner of the Information Age Women in Tech Business Role Model of the Year award, so who better to give us her thoughts on the gender pay gap?

"As someone who is passionate about supporting the empowerment of women in the workplace, I realise that we will never have true equality until the responsibility of childcare is shared by both parents. Many women have little choice but to take part time roles when their children are young, resulting in women being paid less than men. Giving both parents the opportunity to undertake flexible working can play a critical role in addressing the issue of the gender pay gap."

Listen to, engage with, and encourage women

69% of respondents chose this answer

For me, this is one of the joys of working in the technology sector–the opportunity I have to listen to, engage, and encourage women. But the fact that this rates so highly in our survey must only mean the organisations themselves are not doing enough of this.

I chatted to Dr Chenxi Wang, Founder and General Partner of Rain Capital, and this is what she had to say:

"One thing we can all do in our daily jobs as business leaders is to proactively listen to, engage with, and encourage women in tech. It’s surprising to me that nearly 70% of the survey respondents felt that companies do not do this enough. Sometimes the most basic things will make the biggest difference."

Here are some more thoughts from Sue Urses, VP of human resources at Ivanti:

"Attracting and retaining women, at all stages of their careers, is a complex equation and problem to solve. I believe one solution is to create work environments that enable women to have a career without sacrificing their family (and a little time for themselves) – guilt free and without negative consequences. An environment where work/life balance isn’t a sign of weakness."

Encourage young women at schools/universities

61% of respondents chose this answer

We all know that STEM is a very important area and, as an organisation, Ivanti supports STEM. In fact, all staff are given two days off a year (paid) to support their local STEM education initiatives.

Melanie Karunaratne is one of Ivanti’s many STEM ambassadors. I asked her more about supporting STEM:

"As a STEM ambassador, I provide real-world connections to develop awareness of the different ways STEM can be applied in a career, whether directly or indirectly. We help young people understand why STEM subjects are important, and how widely they can be applied in the world of work. In some cases, it helps to change mindsets about the world of work.

You can inspire young people by bringing STEM to life and broaden their horizons with an understanding and appreciation from an early age. You can help them question, experiment and investigate to solve problems that a STEM based business may face.”

Encourage more diverse leadership

58% of respondents chose this answer

Diverse leadership was rated highly by our respondents, and personally, I feel it is really important. I have been very lucky to work for super-smart, strong women over the years. Having them lead me and become a role model for me has definitely helped me push myself in my career.

I chatted to Emma Ashley, Senior Manager of Engineering at Ivanti, about the subject of encouraging diverse leadership:

"Here in our Daresbury, UK office, we have female leaders in both our engineering and customer support functions. Across the leadership team, we readily recognise the value that diversity in teams at all levels brings, and are passionate about improving it. We’re keen to encouraging more women into our organisation. Supporting all of our staff with an environment in which they can flourish is key."

A group of us recently attended a huge women in technology conference in London, which both inspired us and helped us identify ways of making Ivanti an attractive place for women to work and thrive.

Ivanti promotes a learning culture and we are continually sharing our learnings with the rest of the organisation, for instance the engineering groups across Ivanti have begun reviewing the language in their job adverts; we should be conscious about who is on our interview panels, and who represents us at recruitment fairs.

Another great example of recent progress is encouraging women from all of our geographies to get involved – we’ve set up internal networking to share thoughts, ideas and get involvement.

We continue to learn from each other and from others in our industry, by supporting each other and persistently identifying and removing barriers to diversity.

What I find really exciting is that we’re having this conversation as an industry and throughout Ivanti.”

You all know that I am an Ivanti fangirl, so please forgive me for this plug, but I can totally recommend Ivanti if you are looking for a new career and want to work for a company that listens to, engages with and encourages women. Not only do we have these fab blogs and a Twitter account, but we have Slack groups, a brand new page on Ivanti.com, and a team of fantastic women to work with. Check out our opportunities here. Ok, plug over!

Get to Know Isabelle Le Tissier, Ivanti UK Channel Manager

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 23:23:38 Z

Isabelle Le Tissier is a channel manager for Ivanti's UK channel team, managing the distribution partners as well as a couple strategic reseller partners. We recently sat down with her to ask her a few questions about her role in technology.

Q: Tell us what you like most about your role at Ivanti.

ILT: I love how varied my role is; I get to be involved in the sales, marketing and technical plans, speak to people at all levels of the business and work with them to understand how Ivanti can help them hit targets as an individual to being profitable as a business, all whilst providing their customers great technology!

Q: What attracted you to a technology related role?

ILT: I get asked this quite a lot when I meet new people who ask what line of business I am in. I never actually meant to get into IT, I kind of fell into it after finishing university because there are so many tech companies around this area. However, now that I am in it, I would never leave it. It’s an ever-evolving, growing industry, and the future is all about technology which makes it a really interesting place to be.

Q: You’ve recently been on maternity leave. How do you balance a hectic job with being a mum?

ILT: One of the things that attracted me to Ivanti, before I was even thinking about having children, was how family-orientated they were and their strong work-life balance ethos. So I knew when I came back to work, they would be there to support me with the transition of being on maternity leave to being a full-time working mum. I’m finding now that even with the best of forward planning, it can still be hectic. But it’s all worth it to be in a company doing a job you love and coming home to a beautiful daughter.

Q: Do you have any personal experience with gender related equality issues?

ILT: I think I have been really lucky in my career that I have worked in teams and had managers where gender isn’t even a consideration, it’s all about your skills as a person and being the right person for the job. I have had a couple of experiences where I am heading up meetings or training sessions where I have male colleagues supporting me, but the attendees automatically think I am the supporting person and somewhat dismiss me, which just makes me laugh when I stand up to lead it and they have a look of confusion on their faces!

Q: What do you think is the best thing about being a women in technology?

ILT: I think the best thing about being in technology is being in an industry that is so relevant in all aspects of life. I love seeing women being taken more seriously in a male dominated industry and more women wanting to get into it because the opportunity can be the same for them as any male.

Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in technology?

ILT: Go for it! It’s always good to speak to anyone you know that is already in the industry to help you get going or if you don’t know anyone, there are loads of groups you could use and get involved in.

A Q&A with Susan McGuire, Global Field Marketing VP at Ivanti

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:41:19 Z

As vice president of global field marketing at Ivanti, Sue McGuire manages a team of just under 80 employees who cover all aspects of marketing in the field.

From events to channel to PR to digital marketing—and also the sales development and business development (SDR/BDR) teams—Sue and her team have a collective goal to deliver the greatest amount of pipeline to the business, maximizing the ROI for every dollar spent.

We asked Sue a few questions about her role, background, and experience below.

Q: Tell us about being a field marketer in the technology sector.

SM: "Not only must today’s marketers in the technology sector be IT savvy, they also need to be 'marketing tech' savvy. There are a bewildering array of marketing tools to support marketers in their efforts to manage performance, improve results, track speed, analyse relevance and reach of campaigns, refine and tweak creative, etc. Marketers need to ‘skill up’ and keep on top of new technologies that support them in gaining the best insight and achieving the best results. It’s a fast-moving environment and certainly never boring."

Q: What does a typical work day look like for you as a VP of Marketing?

SM: "My day starts at 7 a.m. with calls across the week with my direct reports in APAC. If I’m not travelling—which for the past two years has accounted for more than 60% of my time—I spend some time in the Bracknell office, leaving the office late afternoon to get home for the evening calls with the Americas corporate teams and my field team, normally finishing calls around 8 p.m. Then I take the time to catch up on the day’s email and shut my laptop around 10 p.m. every night apart from Friday. Everybody’s gotta have a break sometime!"

Q: Why are you passionate about empowering women in technology?

SM: "Women bring a different perspective to the business, and in turn ensure a more balanced view of an organisation’s values."

Q: What advice do you have for companies as they strive to promote gender equality?

SM: "Look for the values candidates can offer to a business, regardless of gender."

Q: What advice do you have for women working to break into or advance in the technology industry?

SM: "Historically, the IT industry has been male-dominated, but we are at a turning point and now is the time to take advantage of the rising number of opportunities being offered to females."

Q: Do you think women are under-represented in technology roles?

SM: "Yes, particularly in leadership roles, but this isn’t specific to just technology. It is prevalent across most sectors."

Q: Could you please share a little about your background and what led you to the career path you're on?

SM: "My career started in marketing communications agencies in London, working on a variety of clients and industry sectors; one of which was IT, with clients such as Adobe, Novell, and Cisco.

After spending my twenties in London, I was offered a role at Novell as a marketing manager and jumped at the chance to switch to the client side, although Bracknell seemed like the end of the earth to me at that point. I was lucky enough to work in different roles at Novell—PR, channel marketing, and alliances—and I headed up the marketing for a solution set globally.

After 10 years, Ivanti (then Landesk) approached me with an offer of EMEA marketing director. It’s been a wild ride since then, going through multiple acquisitions and mergers. I now have the pleasure of leading a great marketing team across the globe."

Q: Who inspires you?

SM: "Sheryl Sandberg was my first true inspiration as a successful woman in technology, but day-to-day it’s my team. They’re a group of talented individuals with a breadth of knowledge and skills, are respected by their sales peers, and have a ‘never give up’ attitude. Love working with them!"

Q: What are you reading right now?

SM: "The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. Love reading about the Tudor era."

Q: What are you working on right now?

SM: "I’m starting to look at 2019 plans. In 2018, we have evolved as a team and improved the way we market. This will continue throughout 2019, with increased focus on targeted account marketing, getting in front of the C-level audience, having a more vertical approach to our marketing efforts, and ultimately getting even more value from every dollar we spend."

Q: What else would you want readers of this blog post to know?

SM: "To always stand strong and be confident in your ability. You deserve opportunities as much as the next person."

3 Challenges of Being a Woman in Technology [Stats & Tips]

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 14:16:53 Z

In this second blog of our Women in Technology survey series, I am going to take a look at the results of question two, which asks: What is your biggest challenge being a woman in technology?

Women In Technology Being Taken Seriously:

Over 63% of women responded that their biggest challenge is:

"Being taken seriously in the industry due to gender perceptions."

The above response didn’t surprise me as I hear this time and time again. "Manterruptions", "mansplaining", being delegated menial tasks, and being overlooked for promotion are the examples I hear most often.

Now, as often as I hear this, I do hear positive stories about businesses, colleagues and managers who are super supportive of women in tech. So my first piece of advice would be to find the right home; find a business with a positive gender diverse culture. Even in these positive organisations, though, you may come across the odd person who does not take you seriously, and this is where I think there are ways we can help ourselves:

SEE THE RESULTS: We polled over 500 women in technology to discover their insights into being women in tech.

Female Role Models In The Industry:

Another top answer (over 42%) to the question of challenges being a woman in tech was:

"Having no female role models in the industry."

This is another very important response to discuss. Not only are women seeing this as a challenge whilst working in technology, we also know it is a challenge when it comes to recruiting women into technology or even more girls into STEM. There are definitely more high profile role models than there were a years ago (think Sheryl Sandberg, Dr. Sue Black and Anne-Marie Imafidon) but there are definitely not enough. So what can we do about it?

Well, one thing that is being talked about a lot are editathons to add more women to Wikipedia, as the female gender has always been very underrepresented on the site. I really love this idea.

I also think we need more female speakers. Most tech events I attend have around a 90% male presenter list, and when I am looking to book speakers for events myself, it is very difficult to find women. In the same way, how many times have we seen media coverage of large scale ransomware attacks where all the experts brought in to comment are male? I don’t know the answer to fixing this problem but I really think it would help to see more female experts (of which I know there are many) in the public eye.

I think women also want to see role models within their own organisations. Maybe this is just to see that women have the opportunity to climb the career ladder. Maybe it’s because we want a role model to inspire us, or maybe it’s because we want to find a mentor, but this can be a challenge for a lot of women. Again, if this is really important to you, you may need to search for it and find a new employer.

The Gender Pay Gap:

Almost 40% of respondents to the question of challenges being a woman in tech was:

"The gender pay gap."

This again is nothing new, and we are seeing this across many industries at the moment (not just technology), but it is an issue nonetheless. In the UK, the government's gender pay gap survey does not make for pleasant reading but it is highlighting an issue. It is bringing a problem to the limelight and causing people to talk about it. I can only feel that this will have a positive outcome but I wonder how long that might take.

Interestingly, only 8% of respondents felt that they had no challenges as a woman in technology and I am really happy for those ladies. Wouldn’t it be great if one day we had 100% of respondents choose that answer, and gender diversity in technology was no longer an issue – that’s what we are working towards and we will keep plugging away!

Here are 5 tips to overcome hurdles of being a woman in the technology field:

5 Tips For Women In Technology Challenges:

1. Stop apologising!

You can read more about this in a fantastic blog by Erica Azad: Sorry Not Sorry – It’s Time for Women to Stop Apologizing.

2. Be your true self, be authentic.

I don’t feel that a person should try to change their personality in order to be taken seriously. I hear people advising others to be more aggressive in meetings but if that is not you, then why do it?

3. Call out the people who are not taking you seriously.

This can be a tough one if you are prone to avoiding confrontation, but I hear so many stories of women who do this and find that the perpetrator is totally unaware of how their actions made the woman feel. A diplomatic confrontation will usually result in changed behaviour.

4. Brag.

Ok, so a lot of us are not comfortable bragging about our achievements, but unless we do, how will anyone know what a great job we are doing? If you are not comfortable bragging or highlighting your achievements, find a brag buddy who can do this for you. I’ve tried it – it works!

5. Keep the faith.

Keep reminding yourself that you are good at what you do, and that you bring skills and qualities to the table that are important and valued.

Stay tuned for our next blog which tackles the question: “What is the best thing about being a woman in tech?”. I promise it will be a cheerier read!

SEE THE RESULTS: We polled over 500 women in technology to discover their insights into being women in tech.

Who Inspires You? Women in Tech Share Their Stories

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:59:11 Z

There is a lot of talk at the moment about how positive role models can help encourage young girls to pursue exciting careers in technology.

The current results of our Women in Technology survey show that over 46% of the 500+ respondents answered the question: "What inspired you to get into technology?" with: "I just fell into it." (Full results of this fascinating survey will be released soon, so stay tuned!)

SEE THE RESULTS: We polled over 500 women in technology to discover their insights into being a woman in tech.

It started me thinking that there are lots of role models out there—people who either inspired us to get into technology or people who influence us on a daily basis to be brave, take on challenges and be the best person we can be.

I decided to chat to some of the fantastically smart ladies in the Ivanti Women in Tech community about who inspires them. Here are some of the responses:

Carla Thornley, Head of Service Desk, IT Services – University of Oxford @Larlylaa

"I can’t think of a specific person who inspired me to get into tech, but for the last few years, I’ve been inspired by Susan Cain, the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts.

I love how Susan has linked introversion to leadership, creativity, and organisational transformation, and her message speaks very personally to me about self-belief, confidence, and individuality.

Susan speaks on behalf of so many who may have grown up to think that they are out of step with the world, inadequate, or too quiet to lead. She’s articulate and successful, and passionate about educating us all to see real positives in a human characteristic that is often misunderstood.

I think her work helps to change the labels we assign to people. Most powerfully, I think her ideas can change the way our children see themselves and their place in the world.

'There is zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.'"

Alison Howe, Senior Manager Technical Support – Ivanti @alphowe

"I have been inspired since being a small child in the mid-seventies, when their work first became public, by a group of women who for many years were a mystery: the code breakers at Bletchley Park. These ladies worked in signals intelligence during World War Two. By 1945, 75% of the staff of Bletchley Park were women, and of these six out of ten were in uniform. The very nature of their top secret work required that they remain unknown for so long—they were women who could and did, but were not able to be held up as role models and inspiration for the next generation of women."

Claire Agutter, Service Management Trainer, Consultant and Author @ClaireAgutter

"One woman who inspires me is Dr. Sue Black. She has achieved amazing things (including saving Bletchley Park) despite a tough start in life, and works continually to build networks and opportunities for women in tech. She does all of this while being active, friendly and engaged on social media, raising the visibility of all women in tech. You can follow Dr. Sue Black on Twitter @Dr_Black."

Melissa Oosthuisen, Service Management Consultant

"I can't say that anyone inspired me to get into tech, just that growing up, I was never told that I couldn't play with certain toys or do something because I am a girl. So I had no notion of gender disparity or that women couldn't 'do' tech.

I think the unlimited possibilities of tech itself is what inspired me. Now, 23 years on, I would say women like Sheryl Sandberg inspire me, not solely because of what she has managed to achieve, but because of her controversial idea that women can be their own worst enemy—firstly, our lack of confidence/not putting forward our ideas/where we sit in a room can hold us back, and secondly, we often judge other women in the workplace more harshly than the men (or maybe we just hold them to a higher standard).

So it's one thing to be aware of your company culture with respect to women, but I think it's just as important to be aware of your own possible double standards in this respect.

I think this is a pretty interesting and varied look at the people who inspire some of the Ivanti Women in Tech community.

Personally, I was not inspired by anybody to take up a career in technology. I am another one of the 47% who just 'fell in to it', but the more women I meet each day, the more inspired I am to be a leading force in the Ivanti Women in Technology community and help women in currently in the sector as well as working to encourage more today and in the future. I really believe that technology is by far the most exciting and fast-paced industry to work in, and I am very grateful that I did indeed fall into it. But it needs more women; diversity of all types can only have a positive impact on business."

We would love to hear about who inspires you! Let us know via @TheTechieGirls.

Valuable Insights from Sue Urses, VP of Human Resources at Ivanti

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 21:12:59 Z

With the launch of the results of our women in technology survey, we took the opportunity to chat with Sue Urses, VP of Human Resources at Ivanti, about her experiences and thoughts on how businesses can better support women at work. Below are her insights.

Being a woman working outside the home in any industry is challenging, but in the highly competitive and largely male dominated high-tech industry, women continue to be as elusive as a unicorn. This is especially true when you look at engineering and other technical roles. At Ivanti, we know that women are integral in creating strong, diverse teams. Diverse teams approach problem solving and solution creation from multiple perspectives that exclusively male teams simply can’t.

Ivanti Culture Supports Women

It’s with that in mind that at Ivanti, we are employing strategies to build a culture that will meet and support the needs of women in the work environment. We believe a family centric culture, with ample flexibility, is an absolute MUST for women today.

I know as I began my career in the late eighties/early nineties, if I wanted to compete with my male counterparts, I had to make heartbreaking choices. Not just once, but over and over again. I made a choice to sacrifice my (unpaid) maternity leave and bonding time with my newborn daughter in order to just maintain my career position and status. In order to advance…the sacrifices only continued. I agonized about how to care for a child with a cold or flu and still attend that critical meeting. I missed more than one school play or performance. My husband and I juggled who had to use their vacation/holiday time-off to stay home with that same child when she was on break from school, rather than using that vacation/holiday time to reconnect as a family or just recharge the batteries. Opportunity for personal fulfilment sat firmly on the back-burner until my daughter went off to college herself. Guilt was nearly a constant companion during those years.

Then it was my daughter’s turn to face those same decisions. She chose a path opposite of mine. She put her career on hold to be home with her daughters, my granddaughters. Those were the only two options available to her. So many years later, women (and sometimes men) continue to have to make these kinds of heartbreaking choices… or do they? Can we create a culture where young women (like my granddaughters) can do both? Can we have a career and a family and be successful at both?

Attracting and retaining women, at all stages of their careers, is a complex equation and problem to solve. I believe one solution is to create work environments that enable women to have a career without sacrificing their family (and a little time for themselves) – guilt free and without negative consequences. An environment where work/life balance isn’t a sign of weakness, or of choices not made. Rather valued for the meaningful contributions that can be made in both worlds.

At Ivanti, we are making conscious and deliberate changes to our policies and benefit offerings, and ultimately our culture, to make these heart-breaking choices a thing of the past. We will be introducing:

More paid parental leave programs (maternal and paternal).
More opportunities to work remotely and flexibly.
Job sharing programs for people with young children who may want to work, but not necessarily full-time or not necessarily during traditional business hours. We recognize that the delivery of a quality, innovative work product becomes more important, than the time of day that produce is produced.

All of this to make it easier for women and men to work AND raise their families. Breaking these barriers can make a huge difference in enabling more women to pursue careers in today’s highly competitive, high-tech industry.

Ivanti Interviewed Women in Tech on Their Challenges, Triumphs, and Best Advice

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 23:01:26 Z

We recently interviewed some of the ladies who attended our Women in Tech lunch at Interchange Madrid. Enjoy the video and interview transcript below.

What’s the best thing about being a woman in tech?

"Being a woman in tech is taking what is viewed as a male-dominated environment and working on it as a woman." – Obakeng Tsupoeng, ICL Botswana
"The best thing is the fast-paced environment that we are working in. You get an opportunity to work with new technologies, be innovative, be creative. And I love working with other powerful women in the technology industry." – Sarah Lewis, Ivanti
"There are so many opportunities; it’s so varied. I get to work with loads of different customers so I get to meet loads of different people." – Sally Bogg, Leeds Beckett University
"I like the fact that nothing stays the same for long–technology is changing all the time. I am right at the cutting edge of new things which can make a big difference to the way we live and work in today's world." – Roisin Tims, Ivanti

What’s the most challenging thing about being a woman in tech?

"If you go and visit customers to troubleshoot something and they realise, when you get there, that you are a lady, they can make you feel that–as a woman–you cannot help." – Maikutlo Tsile, ICL Botswana
"The difficulty is that sometimes it’s hard as we are often mistaken for the secretary, not as someone who works in high-tech." – Marielle Ballay, Faurecia
"You have to work much harder to get the credit for your work." – Sandra Ristovska, Ivanovski, Ectacom
"Being undermined–like being told you cannot do what men can do–is the most challenging thing." – Obakeng Tsupoeng, ICL Botswana

What advice do you have for women looking to come into tech?

"I’d say go for it! There are fantastic opportunities, it’s constantly growing and changing. If you are going to go into tech, go into it with all your heart and win fair and square." – Susan McGuire, Ivanti
"I think the advice I would actually give is to have confidence in yourself, believe in yourself, and to train yourself to learn new things all of the time." – Anne-Pierre Guignard, Ivanti
"The best advice I can give is that if you believe you can do it, then go for it." – Obakeng Tsupoeng, ICL Botswana
"Don’t be put off by other people and outside influences." – Roisin Tims, Ivanti
"Don’t be afraid to think differently, act differently, and present different ideas." – Carla Thornley, University of Oxford
"All women should do it; it is actually interesting." – Stina Fossum, Sykehuspartner IKT
"This is the good part. Yes, we can do it! Without women, it can’t happen, so bring it on!" – Maikutlo Tsile, ICL Botswana

UK Female Computing Students on the Rise, but Not Fast Enough

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 15:58:41 Z

We all know that the IT workforce of today is facing a massive skills shortage.

Tech in the UK is booming, with the UK digital technology sector being worth nearly £184 billion, and turnover of companies within it growing by 4.5% between 2016 and 2017 (compared with the UK GDP which only grew by 1.7%). And yet in spite of this growth we find ourselves increasingly reliant on imported talent – about a fifth (180,000) of technology jobs in London are occupied by EU citizens. And, worryingly, we have already seen a 10% downturn in job applications from the continent, and that's before Brexit had even happened.

Solution to Skills Gap Shortage: More Women in Technology

Evidently we need to fill this gap fast, and arguably a key way of doing this would be to get more women into the tech industry. Women make up over 50% of our population, but only 17% of those working in technology in the UK are female.

The statistics from today’s A-level results show a positive trend for girls in computing, however the subject is still overwhelmingly dominated by boys. Boys make up 88% of computing students, with only 12% being girls. That is a step up from the 90% for boys and 10% for girls last year, but still staggeringly weighted on one side. This is also evident at a university level: only 15% (3,015) of computer science graduates in 2016/17 were women. A prevailing stigma is that computing “isn’t for girls” but the statistics show despite being a minority, girls are outperforming boys in the subject at A-Level. 4.2% of girls achieved an A* and 20.1% achieved an A or A* (up from 2.3% and 14.7% respectively in 2017), while just 3.2% of boys achieved an A* and 17.9% achieved an A or A* (up from 3.1% and 17.2% respectively in 2017).

Removing the Gender Biases

Despite this, the heavily weighted gender gap in Computing A-Level and other STEM subjects shows that there need to be changes made at a governmental-level to remove the stigma around girls getting into technology. The education system needs to empower females to get into STEM subjects from a younger age. Once they leave education, the technology industry is responsible for encouraging women into their employment. At this time, traditional recruitment continues to fail to target and attract women due to gender biases.

The digital skills gap is a massive issue in the UK and globally, as technology – including malevolent technology such as the tools used by cybercriminals – evolves at a rapid pace. Bring the number of women working in computing up so that it is equal to men and you've doubled the talent pool. It sounds simple in theory, but in practice it requires businesses and governments to invest in programs and schemes to break down barriers stopping young women from viewing a career in computing, and technology more widely, as viable. The future must be female in order to bridge the digital skills gap!

Join the conversation!