Biz and Tech Talks | Business & Technology Trends Centric Consulting

Centric Commemorates presents a conversation about understanding and celebrating Juneteenth in this special edition of our Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks podcast.





Monday, June 19, marks the celebration of Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021. The holiday now reflects an even more widespread recognition.

Team members Maurice Faison, Blaiden Kirk and Dr. Jodi Merriday join our Couch Convos podcast host John Kackley for an insightful discussion on Juneteenth. They dive into why – and how – people celebrate it today.



Whether you actively celebrate Juneteenth or are just starting to learn about it, we encourage all to enjoy this informative and inspiring dialogue. Happy Juneteenth!

Listen Here



Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 54: Celebrating Juneteenth

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, our automation experts discuss what went wrong with Taylor Swift’s latest concert ticket sales.









In November 2022, tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest concert tour went on sale on Ticketmaster.

Huge demand swamped the website during the “pre-sales” period, crashing it and resulting in considerable outcry about customer service, a near-monopolistic business, and other concerns. We are only now seeing how many lawsuits people are filing.



In this podcast, we dive into this situation from a technical point of view. What if your organization manages a website that faces substantial demand? It’s not only concert tickets that can drive that kind of demand. What about the widespread use of bots, which is one point of contention regarding the topic?



Join us for more discussion about the intricate dance between policy and technology in managing high-volume websites!

Listen Here





Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 51: Taylor Swift Ticketmaster Debacle

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with some of our finest innovators to discuss their ideas for this year’s CampIO.





Every year Centric Consulting hosts CampIO, an internal tech conference where our consultants can get together to share crazy ideas, amazing projects and good times.

In this podcast, we visit with Eric Galluzzo, the organizer, and this year’s two winners for top presentations, Becky Gandillon and Jeff Aalto.



Join us to hear about their amazing projects and for a far-reaching discussion among passionate people excitedly talking about their favorite side projects. How do these passion projects relate to the client work people do? What problem-solving approaches do these passionate people use, and how can you apply them?



We also share ideas about how you can share your own enthusiasms with us even if you can’t make it to Centric’s CampIO 2023!

Listen Here



Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 50: Camp IO 2022

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we talk about organizational change management and how it works within your business, no matter where you are in your change journey.





To other roles in a transformational project, organizational change management (OCM) can feel like a discipline on its own little island. It’s certainly connected to the rest of the project, but how?

We talk with Mark Paulson, Senior Manager for People and Change in Chicago, about how OCM best practices mesh with changes in other disciplines, including agile methodology, sprint development, and new expectations in corporate culture. He also walks us through answers to questions like: How does it engage with the technical world? How do you assess an organization’s capacity for change? How does OCM adapt for hybrid or remote work?



Join us as we dive into OCM in the context of your business projects.

Listen Here



Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 49: OCM In Context







Have you heard our latest podcast? Catch up on Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks!









See What’s New

In this episode of our Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks podcast, we sit down with a consultant recently recognized by Consulting Magazine as Women Leaders in Technology.





In this podcast, we’re celebrating some of our finest consultants, recognized in 2022 by Consulting Magazine among the Women Leaders in Technology: our Chicago operating group’s Anelia Schmitt and Hilary Lee.

We wanted to get a take from these leaders on the challenges women face in consulting today and what they have learned from their experiences. One of the challenges that is all too common these days is being tremendously busy, which meant we couldn’t make the schedule work to talk to Hilary. Instead, another Chicago leader, Amy McJoynt, joins the conversation.



In this discussion, we talk about these challenges and more. While we look back on their formative professional years, we look forwards as well discussing how we can lay the groundwork for the leaders of the future.



Join us for this podcast to get Amy’s and Anelia’s thoughtful insights on the opportunities for women in consulting today.

Listen Here



Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 48: Women In Consulting

 

In this episode of Couch Convos: Biz and Tech Talks, we sit down with Modern Software Delivery expert Pete Walen to talk about using test automation to support software development.





A lot of software testing is repetitive, and therefore a great candidate for some sort of automation.

Automation on its own doesn’t solve all your problems, however. You need to design it around the needs of your business environment and the business solution you’re implementing. And even then, it can have surprising complications. In this discussion, we talk to Pete Walen about how to get the most out of test automation: when it works, when it doesn’t, and how to make the most of it in your particular situation.



Join us for this podcast to see how test automation can support your software development project, plus a whole lot more!

Listen Here



Centric Consulting · Biz and Tech Talks 47: Test Automation in Software Development