March 5, 2007

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Level: Introductory/All Levels

Do you *really* know who your customers are? Do you *really* understand what they perceive as valuable. We with engineering and science backgrounds too often take for granted that what we produce has obvious value. Our customers see us working hard, but may not understand why we labor the way we do. Nor should they! Our leadership should be in a service role, and to provide good service, we need to understand what *they* value. This session will overview hand-to-hand marketing in the trenches as actually developed in one company. We’ll borrow concepts like segmentation analysis and strategic market planning to show how you can improve the perception of your data management organization. By focusing efforts and concentrating limited, precious resources, you’ll be able to incrementally and continuously upgrade the services you provide.

• Taking inventory of customers and services
• Segmentation analysis
• Getting intimate with your customers
• Deciphering market surveys
• The strategic pivot point
• Ranking possible initiatives
• Rolling out your campaign
  

Jim McQuade is Data Architect at Giant Eagle, Inc., a large regional supermarket and merchandiser on the Forbes 30 list of top privately held companies. Holding a BS in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon and an MS in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh, Jim has concentrated as a Data Management professional for the past nine years. With 25 years field experience, Jim evolved into data management from the applications development arena where he honed his skills as software engineer, project manager, facilitator, and account manager. Jim is also Acting Vice President of IRMAP, the Information Resource Management Association of Pittsburgh, a DAMA Chapter-in-Formation. A life-long native of Pittsburgh, PA, Jim has a few published articles in the industry trade press and is a charter member of Giant Eagle’s Enterprise Architecture Committee.