Three Ways We Bring a Learning Culture to Our Business

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One reasons that Valence consistently is awarded Best Place to Work by the Business Journal is because we are all about a Learning Culture. A Learning Culture is rooted in a growth mindset where people want to learn and to apply what they have learned to help their organization.

Our team weaves together consulting, design, and engineering practices while staying alert to new technologies and innovations, while also becoming experts in our clients’ industries, business units, and market trends.

That’s a lot to learn.

And rather than being intimidated by all the things we have yet to learn, we encourage our people to stay open and curious. Learning is a core value here, and it’s a key to our company’s success.

“One thing I love about this company is that it’s a learning place. I always feel comfortable calling our designers, architects, and engineers so I can tap their expertise and better understand what matters most. They always make the time and encourage me to ask questions, and it helps me feel confident in my role,” Angela Kaiser, senior project manager.

We leverage each other’s knowledge, and as part of MajorKey, we are exploring exciting ways to broaden our educational platform, especially since we are now a global business with learners and teachers in the US, India, and Argentina.

“I love being a part of the learning culture and I love that I have the freedom to learn, admit what I don’t know, and dig into what I want to know. Valence is a great place for that,” says Renee Christenson, senior project manager at Valence. Renee also leads up the Valence Lunch and Learn program!

Learning happens formally and informally here, whether it comes through moments in spontaneous conversations, as part of a scheduled deep dive with a colleague, at one of our monthly lunch and learn meetings, at a conference, or through collaboration with clients and partners.

Senior Content Writer, Malia Jacobson says, “I have a quote by author Annie Dillard framed in my office. The final lines are ‘Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.’ It reminds me that it’s not enough to continually develop new knowledge in our fields—we also need to share what we’re learning. I’ve learned so much from my Valence team members and colleagues, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share, engage, and pay it forward.”

Here are three tips to bring a learning culture into your company:

A flat structure will encourage people to ask questions and show their curiosity.

We need each other’s knowledge, and with a flat organizational structure, anyone can share what they’ve learned and what they are passionate about with confidence.

Lunch and learn sessions offer a formalized process with an informal interaction, which helps people to feel comfortable presenting and attending. People respect each other and lead with kindness and respect, so whether you are a presenter with a bit of stage fright, or an attendee nervous to ask a question, everyone is welcome and respected.

2. Invest resources into your Learning Culture and put someone in charge of it.

Valence runs a monthly Lunch and Learn program, which is managed a senior project manager who collaborates with our People team. The Lunch and Learn program typically requires about 4 hours of management time each month.

When a team member delivers a Lunch and Learn presentation, they typically spend up to 40 hours putting the content together, rehearsing, and preparing to present it over several weeks.

The ad hoc requests for education and cross-team sharing are harder to measure, but it’s safe to say that subject matter experts share and seek expertise as part of their work.

We should mention a secondary culture benefit when your company prioritizes learning and teaching, which is that it creates new avenues for employees to know each other and build meaningful relationships, which are crucial for mental health and workplace satisfaction (and harder to come by in remote work situations.)

3. Teach and learn about more than technical topics.

Naturally our monthly Lunch and Learn program covers topics like Artificial Intelligence, 5G, and data governance; but it has also covers topics like Crossfit, perfecting your LinkedIn profile, and making the most of video conferencing. Our upcoming lunch and learn schedule covers topics as varying as DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and the evolution of digital content?

Showcase your Learning Culture by creating a platform for employees to share their passions.

By operating like a campus-less campus, everyone is a student, and everyone is a teacher so we can all come together around learning.

“People are encouraged to share their knowledge and be an educator for the company, which is why you never know what you can learn here,” said Valence President, Jim Darrin.

If you are a knowledge seeker, you’ve got a growth mindset, and you love a learning culture, check out our careers page! At Valence, you might find a career where you can tackle challenges, learn, grow, and develop professionally!

Additional Resources:

Kopius Careers Page

Designing for Good: User-Centered Design

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We’re talking about user-centered design because ideas succeed when they translate to products, services, and experiences that users love.

So what does “user-centered design” really mean, and why is it so important right now?

To understand user-centered design, look back to the time when digital products didn’t focus on the user experience like they do today. Just 10 years ago, digital products like websites, apps, and software didn’t need to perform on multiple screen sizes or resolutions because devices were mostly standardized. Companies could create a version of their digital product for desktop devices, a distinct version for phones, and possibly another version for tablets. Many companies didn’t address accessibility and they primarily designed digital products for a single operating system. As a result, many users found technology frustrating, hindering, and downright irritating, which hindered adoption.
Kelly La Belle, Designer

A great product is a product people want to use.

Thankfully, companies addressed the user frustration, and the design process for digital products has been evolving to prioritize users ever since.

People value products that are easy to use, simple to set up, and have a logical progression. User-centered design isolates the users’ specific needs down to granular steps, then we design to be aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. To really understand the users, the design process requires user research, which can include user surveys, brainstorming, testing, and more.

There is no single approach to user-centered design. Most digital products have unique experiences that require unique solutions. An investment in a great user experience and user interface design can make the difference between success and failure.

Products that incorporate user-centered design have been proven to:

Cut down on customer service costs. More intuitive workflows result in less customer frustration and fewer service calls.
Increase sales. Customers conduct research before committing to a new product or service so first impressions online are key. A few bad online reviews about your product will result in lost sales. Rather than hire a PR firm to fix your product’s reputation, invest in a great user experience upfront to reduce the cost of sale.
Reduce lawsuits. Companies can be held legally responsible if their digital products aren’t usable for people with disabilities. Having an inaccessible digital product is in the same vein as having an inaccessible storefront. User-centered design will address accessibility as a top priority.

User-centered design is popular because it works. The digital landscape is constantly changing, so keep the user at the center of the change to ensure a great product and strong business.

Want to know more about our user-focused design capabilities?

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Designing for Good: Equitable Design

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The terms Equity and Equitable Design come up with increasing frequency as businesses are asked to be transparent about efforts to support diversity, equity, and inclusion by investors, customers, and employees.

Our designers want to make equitable designs for every client, so we have worked to understand what it means to design equitably.

Understanding Equitable Design

To quote Jennifer Wright of Designers Build, “The term equity is often used interchangeably with equality, but it is a fundamentally different concept. Equality is giving everyone the same thing. Equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful.”

This does not mean that we design everything to be equal or the same for everyone regardless of their needs. Equitable design also does not mean that we have a diversity checklist for your stock photo library.

“From my perspective, equitable design has three levels of impact: Representational, Experiential, and Cognitive-behavioral,” says Kopius UX Designer, Jacob Lowry. In the context of equitable design, we like to define the three levels of impact like this:

Representational design authentically and positively challenges societal defaults and expectations.
Experiential design focuses on accessibility, beyond WCAG or ADA accessibility to include social, cultural, and technological access. With experiential design, we design for user needs and emotions.
Cognitive-Behavioral design influences how people think and behave. In this case, to use design to help people to think and act in a way that contributes and supports a more equitable society.

Transforming Your Next Project With Equitable Design

Everyone consumes content, and designers are in the unique position of helping create that content. As Christopher Paul discusses in his book Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games: Analyzing Words, Design, and Play, design is a powerful and important societal role – it isn’t isolated.

Most design is built for business needs and for-profit content. However, being driven by profit is not in conflict with equitable design. In fact, there is a mountain of evidence to back up the link between business effectiveness and equitable design. Companies that integrate social responsibility into their operations can expect positive financial returns. These companies also increase sales and prices while reducing employee turnover.

It happens in big and small moments.

Embracing Equitable Design for Inclusive Solutions

Designers can have the ambition for large, systematic change while operating on a niche, local, brand, or worldwide level.

Designer Rie Nørregaard said in “Designing for Humanity,” that designers should shift away from “designing for” to “designing with” by connecting with different people and contexts. When designers step back from their own experiences to connect with the user and their perspective, we can design more equitably. This is especially true for designers that are members of the default norms (white, male, able-bodied, English-speaking, etc.). How do we connect with other user experiences and needs? It can be through interviews, observations, conversations, research, and more. This is informed at Kopius by our user research team, too.

It’s simple to include equitable design in your next project because it doesn’t require a lot of research or professional development (though those can help). Equitable design simply requires a commitment to look outside of a limited worldview to find the right way to approach solutions for a more diverse set of users.

Contact Kopius for Equitable Design Solutions

Kopius creates digital experiences that are used by companies and people across every industry and experienced by users around the world. In addition to our own sense of social responsibility, by considering equitable design in our work, we also meet our responsibility to produce commercially successful solutions.

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Valence Announces Lindsay Cox Appointment to Executive Team as Vice President of Sales

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BELLEVUE, Washington – January 10, 2022 – Valence, a business working at the leading edge of transformational technologies with strong consulting, user-centered design, and engineering capabilities, today announced that Lindsay Cox has been named as Vice President of Sales, bringing her experience and expertise to the company’s executive leadership team.

Lindsay Cox has approximately twenty years of senior management, sales, and business development experience, working in the Pacific Northwest technology market, including ten years of strategic client development and market leadership for technology brands, most recently as Technology Sales Director at Accenture. Prior to that, Cox served as Client Leader & Executive at IBM. Cox has established her market reputation thanks to her experience building high-performing sales teams and being instrumental in driving revenue for her clients.

“Lindsay is the right leader for Valence,” said Jim Darrin, Valence CEO, “Lindsay bridges a deep understanding of enterprise technology with a commitment to client outcomes and successful solutions. She will help Valence to strengthen customer and partner connections while developing strategic alliances that expand our company’s market presence.”

“I’m very excited to be part of the Valence team at this critical time in the company’s growth,” said Cox, “I believe Valance and MajorKey have a compelling business model and a talented management team that uniquely positions us to capitalize on the rapidly accelerating digital transformation environment. Valence can provide unrivaled technology solutions to help businesses achieve their full potential. I am delighted to be a part of this team.”

About Valence

A MajorKey company, Valence is a digital transformation solutions provider focused on helping enterprise customers understand and apply next-generation technologies in a smart and innovative way to advance their business goals. From cloud enablement to cutting-edge, Valence operates across all stages of the digital transformation journey with integrated creative, consulting, and engineering services. Its team takes pride in its ability to provide new perspectives and build solutions that result in operational efficiencies and improved user experiences. For more information, visit https://kopiustech.com/.

Digital Twins, Machine Learning, and IoT

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Digital twins are part of the Internet of Things (IoT) interconnected system. In 2021, Accenture positioned them as one of the top five strategic technology trends to watch.

As the name suggests, a digital twin is a virtual model designed to reflect a physical object. Companies like Chevron are using digital twins to predict maintenance issues faster, and Unilever used one on the Azure IoT platform to analyze and fine-tune factory operations such as temperatures and production cycle times.

With a digital twin, the object being studied is outfitted with sensors related to key areas of functionality to produce data about aspects of the physical object’s performance, such as energy output, temperature, and weather conditions. The data is relayed to a processing system and applied to the twin.

Once informed with this data, the digital twin can run simulations, study performance issues, and generate possible improvements, all while generating insights that can be applied to the physical object.

Sometimes digital twins include a rich immersive visual experience, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes they have a simple interface or no interface at all.

Digital Twins are part of the evolution of IoT within the digital transformation. They are used often today in commercial real estate and facilities planning, and as we think about the metaverse, digital twins take on increasing importance with virtual spaces. When you think about the implications of machine learning on digital twins and the IoT, the possibilities for real-time smart monitoring get very interesting.

Imagine a large corporate campus that has been turned into an enormous digital twin that expands to other campuses and physical locations. What if that digital twin uses machine learning to optimize things like traffic, utilities, and weather? How could a global company use digital twins to have a complete model of the physical world?

Here is our biggest tip for anyone considering digital twins as part of a project strategy:

We like to start by considering the existing tools. A robust set of tools already exists through companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services TwinMaker (both of which are Valence partners).

Leverage existing industry ontologies (data dictionaries) like schema and naming systems and data formats for interchange within communities. You’ll benefit from established best practices and from broader operability between third-party vendors.

Microsoft contributed industry standards for digital twin definition language that make it simpler to build, use, and maintain digital twins.

The underlying services are provisioned automatically so developers can build upon a platform of services and extend the existing Microsoft or Amazon product. The process isn’t turnkey, and you won’t be able to create a digital twin using completely out-of-the-box tools, but the platform is managed for you, which lowers the operation costs. The platforms are also more secure and designed with best-operating practices in mind such as automatic back-up and built-in deployment automation.

Building upon industry standards will also save you time. For example, if you want to create a smart building solution and need to describe a building’s physical space, industry standards will help since software developers don’t usually have a facilities or building management background. An industry-standard model gives developers an advantage when creating a digital twin that their clients can understand and use.

Data-driven solution

Digital twins create a platform to measure and store data. With the data available, you can test and answer both operational and business questions. For example, you can investigate fragile risky components in your supply/production system and explore opportunities to improve and expand new services. The key is that measuring and storing the data are essential steps before using any analytical tool.

Digital Twins are Evolving

While building a digital twin is more difficult than what can be done by a typical business user, we can develop these complex systems with a modest team of developers and designers. We typically only need to bring in highly specialized engineers when there are heavy integration and interoperability challenges with several vendors.

The technology is evolving, and early-stage challenges with vendor integration will improve over time, making it easier to transition a digital twin solution from one cloud provider to another.

One of the keys to digital transformation is challenging how we do things today to explore how to get more computerization and automation involved. Can digital twins improve your organization’s warehousing and distribution? Can digital twins improve the challenges faced in the supply chain? Can your sustainability goals be tested with a digital twin? There are many possibilities to consider!

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Two Companies in Harmony: MajorKey Technologies and Valence Group have Joined Forces

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by Jim Darrin

Last week we announced that Valence Group has been acquired by MajorKey Technologies, and we are very excited about our future.

MajorKey and Valence are on a mission to bring harmony to our clients’ technologies. The connection between our businesses is very real – we share a commitment to our people, our clients, and to using innovation to unlock potential.

When Valence was founded four years ago, we knew we wanted to grow a business that put people first. We wanted Valence to provide technology solutions for other business leaders. We wanted our employees to experience the best job and company culture of their careers. And we wanted to give back to the people in our community.

We also wanted to be an engineering-first company, using transformative technology to solve business problems for Enterprise customers. We quickly learned that this hit home with our customers. The world of digital transformation is more than buzz words – it involves helping our customers demystify the confusion and complexity of where to start. It involves helping our customers understand their business challenges and create a technology strategy that solves their business problems.

Becoming a part of MajorKey expands our ability to do exactly that.

MajorKey offers world-class cloud-based technology solutions, as well as near-shore and off-shore talent resources that our clients can benefit from immediately. We are managed by The Acacia Group, a private equity firm that defies stereotypes thanks to its commitment to growing businesses and cultivating leaders. We were drawn to Acacia and MajorKey because of our shared vision of people and culture.

Our first focus is on connecting with clients and partners to explore the opportunities that this relationship opens up. And of course, we’re popping champagne to celebrate. These are the top three reasons why this announcement is making us smile:

Our clients will have access to an expanded bench of talent that has shown to be at the top of their game, ready to deliver on our promise of innovation. This includes nearshore and offshore engineering capabilities.
Acacia and MajorKey are people-first organizations, just like ours. Whether those people are our employees, our clients, or our neighbors, we all are committed to being a human-centric organization. The cultural fit is everything I’ve hoped for.
Our reach and influence in the digital transformation space has taken a massive leap forward, creating new opportunities for our talented team, and revealing new opportunities for our clients.

Thanks for celebrating this news with us – we’ve got plenty to talk about in 2022 and beyond!

Want to learn more?

About MajorKey: MajorKey Technologies is a leading technology strategy, design, and enterprise operations partner to public and private sector clients focused on cloud-enabled digital transformation. MajorKey delivers better experiences through harmonized technologies that power its customer’s digital transformation. Its services include Digital Strategic Consulting, Enterprise Service Management, Identity Access Management, DevSecOps and Software Development, Cloud Adoption, and Managed Services. MajorKey is online at www.majorkeytech.com.
About The Acacia Group: The Acacia Group is a specialist investment firm that invests to build businesses that benefit from and deliver digital transformation. They do it by empowering skillful leaders, shaping collaborative cultures, nurturing exceptional talent, developing differentiated IP, and building distinctive brands. Find them online at www.acaciagroup.com.

Have questions? We’re happy to share more information about this exciting news!

MajorKey Technologies and Valence Group Join Forces to Create Full-Service Digital Transformation Partner to Commercial and Public Sector Clients

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Acquisition of Valence strengthens MajorKey’s ability to design and deliver transformational solutions throughout the tech stack with enhanced strategic consulting capabilities and expanded design and technology offerings

Chicago, December 9, 2021 – MajorKey Technologies, the company bringing harmony to its clients’ digital operations, backed by The Acacia Group, today announced the acquisition Valence Group, Inc., a business working at the leading edge of transformational technologies with strong consulting, user-centered design, and engineering capabilities. This move enhances MajorKey’s long-term value to clients by strengthening its current strategic consulting firepower and augmenting its technical expertise across the tech stack.

Seattle-based Valence was launched in 2017 and has since grown to a team of 90 consultants and engineers working with commercial and public sector clients across the U.S. This brings the MajorKey team to over 650 people and adds new technical capabilities in areas of high customer demand including Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, data integration, and user-centered design.

“Growing our long-term value to clients is at the heart of our strategy at MajorKey. That means helping them shape their digital strategies and deploy the right combination of technologies that liberate people to do their best work,” said Rami Cassis, CEO of MajorKey Technologies. “The Valence team accelerates that strategy, given its strengths in consulting, user experience and emerging technologies, which complement MajorKey’s capabilities in Enterprise Service Management, information security, DevSecOps, custom app development and managed services. Together with our global delivery capability, we’re well positioned to help clients plan effectively for the future and achieve new value from their technology investments. We are thrilled to welcome Valence to the MajorKey team.”

“Like many fast-growing companies, our biggest challenge is how to scale and meet intense client demand. Joining MajorKey answers that challenge, bolstered by its outstanding sales team and client base, as well as its ability to field blended teams of exceptional on- and near-shore technical talent—all of which will benefit our clients,” said Valence CEO Jim Darrin. “The MajorKey and Acacia teams stood out because of our shared values and commitment to creating new opportunities for our people. We each believe that our people are our superpower. Once we connected over this shared philosophy, joining MajorKey was a no-brainer for us. We’re excited by the potential of what we can achieve together.”

MajorKey and Valence are united in their focus on delivering great business outcomes for clients through an end-to-end service model focused on strategy, design, engineering and managed services. As their teams come together, they will be dedicated to releasing client teams from mundane tasks, strengthening collaboration between lines of business, designing new solutions to critical problems, securing infrastructure, and above all, creating exceptional experiences for their people and their customers.

Acacia Group partner Craig Dawson said: “MajorKey and Valence are a fantastic fit. They are businesses built on people-centric cultures where values really matter. They have expert teams working with skill and dexterity to advance their clients’ digital transformation. Together they create a one-stop-shop for clients looking to combine foresight, creativity and pragmatism in how they use technology as an enabler for building better customer experiences and stronger businesses. We are really ambitious for the future of MajorKey. With the Valence team coming on board, the company continues to go from strength-to-strength.”

MajorKey Technologies rebranded from Highmetric in May 2021 following the acquisition of the company’s highly successful ServiceNow division. MajorKey is backed by The Acacia Group, a team of specialist technology investors who acquired the company in May 2019.

Cascadia Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Valence.

About MajorKey Technologies
MajorKey Technologies is a leading global technology strategy, design and enterprise operations partner to public and private sector clients focused on cloud-enabled digital transformation. With more than twenty years’ experience, the Company guides clients through complex technology landscapes to arrive at simple, smart choices that are implemented to the very highest standards. MajorKey delivers better experiences through harmonized technologies that power its customer’s digital transformation. Its services include Digital Strategic Consulting, Enterprise Service Management, Identity Access Management, DevSecOps and Software Development, Cloud Adoption and Managed Services—delivered through its highly-skilled teams of on-shore, near-shore and off-shore resources. The Company holds top tier partnerships with some of the world’s leading innovators, including AWS, SailPoint, AppDynamics, Okta and Atlassian, to name a few. For more information, go to majorkeytech.com.

About Valence

Valence is a digital transformation solutions provider focused on helping enterprise customers understand and apply next-generation technologies in a smart and innovative way to advance their business goals. From cloud enablement to cutting-edge, Valence operates across all stages of the digital transformation journey with integrated creative, consulting, and engineering services. Its team takes pride in its ability to provide new perspectives and build solutions that result in operational efficiencies and improved user experiences. For more information, go to kopiustech.com/.

About The Acacia Group

The Acacia Group is a specialist investment firm. Acacia invests to build businesses that benefit from and deliver digital transformation, creating the conditions for strong and sustainable growth. We do it by empowering skilful leaders, shaping collaborative cultures, nurturing exceptional talent, developing differentiated IP and building distinctive brands. As independent sponsors we can focus on creating great businesses, and commit to hands-on support to our management teams. This way, we enable the companies in our portfolio to reach new heights of achievement. For more information, please visit The Acacia Group or follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Sarah Broome

Inspire Agency (Formerly B Squared) on behalf of MajorKey Technologies

Tel: +714-469-9237

Email: sbroome@inspire-agency.com

How to Be a Project Manager in the Age of Digital Transformation

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by Deborah Keltner

Are you curious about the life of a project manager working in technology and innovation?

The project manager is the glue that holds a project together, linking the client and partner teams with the technical resources needed to deliver the work. Good project managers are in demand because the integration of technologies, systems, and platforms demands sophisticated project management approaches. A good project manager demonstrates emotional intelligence, business savvy, excellent processes, and confidence holding themselves and others accountable.

Working in digital transformation means that the work a project manager oversees can range from a blog post and digital marketing campaign to an artificial intelligence project that transforms business operations, and everything in between.

At Valence we hire Project Managers, Marketing Project Managers, and Technical Project Managers. There is significant overlap in the roles, noting that Technical Project Managers often work closely with highly technical development teams and need a functional knowledge of technical concepts such as cloud technology and agile processes.

We talked to several of our project managers at Valence to understand the day-to-day realities and pull the curtain back on technical project management at our innovation company.

Collaborate with the client to define the project vision, goals, and process

“A lot of my interactions with clients involve asking questions to get to the heart of what they want or need. Our clients come to us with an idea of what they want, and they need me to figure out how to pull the team together to get it done,” says Angela Kaiser, Valence senior project manager.

Our clients and partners often come to us with a high-level vision of their project, and the first order of business for a project manager is to provide the guidance needed to define the project, its features, and its desired results. This is often achieved during regular meetings that cover a lot of territory – the project manager is there to create clarity, move the project forward, and maintain accountability for progress.

Project managers are ready. The ability to prepare for and conduct a meeting is core to success. Preparation includes being clear on meeting goals, identifying the right attendees, and creating an agenda. When conducting the meetings, our project managers create space for various perspectives to be heard while keeping momentum and progressing the project. PMs follow up with a clear, concise, useful distillation of meeting notes and actions so the team can be held accountable.

Accountable for accountability

“I want the designers, content writers, and engineers to feel like I’m on the team – being in the trenches working on product scripts isn’t always glamorous, but it builds cohesiveness with the team. That’s my leadership style.” Glen Lewis, Technical Project Manager at Valence.

You can’t talk about project management without talking about accountability. The entire team, including clients and partners, depends on the project manager to track action items, deadlines, and the project status. While the accountability to get tasks done is distributed throughout the team, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the project is completed on time and with the desired result falls on the project manager. So, you should be comfortable tracking commitments, holding people to them, and of course meeting any commitments that you make.

“As the project manager, I need to bring in the right people and then help those people stay focused on what the project needs next. My role involves lots of follow-up, some chasing down, and open transparent communication,” says Allison Pass, a senior project manager with Valence since 2019.

Holding people accountable doesn’t mean the same thing as nagging! In fact, a soft skill that is core to successful project management is making it easy for people to understand what is needed from them and following up effectively. It helps to like people and the teams you are working with.

Our project managers work with clients and partners around the world. Any given meeting may have attendees from Iceland, Seattle, Nashville, and Munich. Having a natural ability to connect with diverse people and backgrounds makes the back-and-forth of getting projects done easier and more fun for everyone.

Inevitably, something will happen with a client or project that requires the team to switch gears or make last-minute changes to a deliverable. Project managers need a steady hand and a flexible approach when those moments come up because they set the tone for the team and also help the client to understand the implications of their change.

Holding people accountable is easier in a culture where leadership supports its project managers. We support project managers by making it clear that we have our team’s back, and our focus is on making the situation better. We expect the same from our clients and are happy to report that our clients are just as solution-oriented as we are.

Part of a collaborative team of smart and creative people

“I’ve reached out to people who weren’t on my project for help, suggestions, collaboration – and all of our coworkers are always willing to help and give time to others even when it’s not their project,” says Angela Kaiser, “I’ve been pleasantly surprised because a lot of us are remote and haven’t been able to meet in person yet, so the collaboration really surprised me and I love it.”  

In addition to the project team, which includes clients and partners, a project manager is also part of the larger Valence team. Our flat, open-door culture means there is a lot of collaboration with team members who may not be assigned to your project.

Angela continues, “Before I was a project manager, my jobs were about paying attention to only what I was doing. As a project manager, it’s my job to help make other people’s jobs easier, to help organize workstreams, and to help our team collaborate to get the job done. I love working with other people and seeing what I can do to help them.”

Our project managers work with an eclectic group of people in a unique environment. The combination of skills and professionals needed to deliver innovation and digital transformation means there is a lot of variety in the perspectives of the team. This also means that it’s a fertile environment for a variety of opinions, challenges to norms and assumptions, and creative thinking across strategy, design, and engineering teams. Being a project manager puts you at the center of these conversations.

“I’m excited to see my coworkers in meetings because I genuinely like them,” says Glen Lewis, “I wake up in the morning and I’m excited to hang out with these people, have dynamic discussions, and talk about things that excite me.”

“You can expect to work for a great company with some really talented people and a great internal support system. Any time I run into questions and want to know more about something, there Is someone at Valence who will help me out. If I reach out, the help is always there,” adds Allison Pass.

Closing

“The company puts me in these roles for two reasons: One is to deliver per the contract, and the other is to provide an experience that makes our clients want to come back to Valence. They have a problem and I’m here to help them. I’m very motivated by the results,” says Glen Lewis.

Project management can offer a long and rewarding career path. The digital transformation industry is incredibly dynamic and the project teams are motivated, innovative, and creative. Project managers get to work with clients and partners from some of the biggest brands in the world as they work on their most innovative projects. It’s hard work, and the successes are quite a thrill.

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How to Develop a Data Retention Policy

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by Steven Fiore

We help organizations implement a unified data governance solution that helps them manage and govern their on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS data. The data governance solution will always include a data retention policy.

When planning a data retention policy, you must be relentless in asking the right questions that will guide your team toward actionable and measurable results. By approaching data retention policies as part of the unified data governance effort, you can easily create a holistic, up-to-date approach to data retention and disposal.

Steps to Creating an Effective Data Retention Policy

Ideally, any group that creates, uses, or disposes of data in any way will be involved in data planning. Field workers collecting data, back-office workers processing it, IT staff responsible for transmitting and destroying it, Legal, HR, Public Relations, Security (cyber and physical) and anyone in between that has a stake in the data should be involved in planning data retention and disposal.

Data Inventory

The first step is to understand what data you have today. Thanks to decades of organizational silos, many organizations don’t understand all the data they have amassed. Conducting a data inventory or unified data discovery is a critical first step.

Review Data Retention Regulations

Next, you need to understand the requirements of the applicable regulation or regulations in your industry and geographical region so that your data planning and retention policy addresses compliance requirements. No matter your organization’s values, compliance is required and needs to be understood.

Recognize Your Data Risks

Then, businesses should identify where data retention may be costing the business or introducing risk. Understanding the risk and inefficiencies in current data processes may help identify what should be retained and for how long, and how to dispose of the data when the retention expires.

If the goal is to increase revenue or contribute to social goals, then you must understand which data affords that possibility, and how much data you need to make the analysis worthwhile. Machine Learning requires massive amounts of data over extended periods of time to increase the accuracy of the learning, so if machine learning and artificial intelligence outcomes are key to your revenue opportunity, you will require more data than you would need to use traditional Business Intelligence for dashboards and decision making.

What Types of Data Should be Included in the Data Retention Policy?

The types of data included in the data retention policy will depend on the goals of the business. Businesses need to be thoughtful about what data they don’t need to include in their policies. Retaining and managing unneeded data costs organizations time and money – so identifying the data that can be disposed of is important and too often overlooked.

Businesses should consider which innovation technologies are included in their digital roadmap. If machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and/or intelligent process automation are in your technology roadmap, you will want a strategy for data retention and disposal that will feed the learning models when you are ready to build them. Machine learning could influence data retention policies, Internet of Things can impact what data is included since it tends to create enormous amounts of data. Robotic or Intelligent Process Automation is another example where understanding which data is most essential to highly repeatable processes could dictate what data is held and for how long.

One final note is considering non-traditional data sources and if they should be included. Do voice mails or meeting recordings need to be included? What about pictures that may be stored along with documents? Security camera footage? IoT or server logs? Metadata? Audit trails? The list goes on, and the earlier these types of data are considered, the easier they will be to manage.

Common Data Retention Strategy Pitfalls

The paradox is that the two biggest mistakes organizations make when building a data retention policy are either not taking enough time to plan or taking too much time to plan. Spending too much time planning can lead to analysis paralysis letting a data catastrophe occur before a solution can be implemented. One way to mitigate this risk is to take an iterative approach so you can learn from small issues before they become big ones.

A typical misstep by organizations when building a data retention policy is that they don’t understand their objectives from the onset. Organizations need to start by clearly stating the goals of their data policy, and then build a policy that supports those goals. We talked about the link between company goals and data policies here.

One other major pitfall organizations fall into when building a data retention policy is that they don’t understand their data, where it lives, and how its interrelated. Keeping data unnecessarily is as bad as disposing of data you need – and in highly silo-ed organizations, data interdependencies might not surface until needed data is suddenly missing or data that should have been disposed of surfaces in a legal discovery. This is partially mitigated by bringing the right people to the planning process so that you can understand the full picture of data implications in your organization.

Data Retention Policy Solutions by Kopius

The future of enterprise effectiveness is driven by advanced data analytics and insights. Businesses of all sizes are including data strategies in their digital transformation roadmap, which must include data governance, data management, business planning and analysis, and intelligent forecasting. Understand your business goals and values, and then build the data retention policies that are right for you.

We are here to help. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

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The Right Data Retention Policy for Your Organization

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by Steven Fiore

Every business needs a strategy to manage its data, and that strategy should include a plan for data retention. Before setting a data retention policy, it’s important to understand the purpose of the policy and how it can contribute to organizational goals.

There are four values that drive most businesses to do anything:

To make money and increase revenue
To save money by decreasing costs
Because they must comply with regulations
Because they want to use the business as a platform for social good

While each of these values will be represented in any organization, some investigation will usually reveal that one or two of these values outshine the rest. Which values are most important will vary from one organization to another.

Organizations need to start by clearly stating the goals of their data policy, and then build a policy that supports those goals. We help companies unearth business drivers so data policies can contribute to the company values and goals rather than compete with them.

In this post, we explore best practices in establishing and maintaining a data retention policy through the lens of these business drivers.

What are the goals of your data retention policy?

Value: Make Money

Companies that rely on advertising revenue like Google and Facebook want to keep as much data as necessary to maximize revenue opportunities.

Companies that mine their data can spot trends in their data that inform product enhancements, improve customer experience (driving brand loyalty), and reveal revenue opportunities that would have otherwise been hidden.

In both cases, the data retention policy should focus on what data can contribute to revenue, and how much of it is needed. Balancing aggregate data versus more granular data is the key so you retain enough data to achieve your objectives without retaining unneeded data that adds cost, complexity, and security or privacy risks.

Value: Save Money

Many businesses focus on the bottom line and prioritize efficiency to avoid wasting time, money, and energy.

Businesses that want to save money can use data retention to make the organization more efficient. While data storage is inexpensive, it isn’t free – and access can be more expensive than storage. So, for an organization that wants its data policies to help save money, the policy might focus on retaining only the data that is necessary to avoid extra storage and management overhead.

Further, retaining more data than you need to can be a legal liability. Having a data retention and disposal policy can reduce legal expenses in the event of a legal discovery process.

There’s also an efficiency cost to data – the more data you have, the slower the process will be to search and use that data. So, data retention policies can and should be part of a data governance strategy aimed at making the data that is retained as efficient to manage and use as possible.

Value: Comply with Regulations

Many industries have their own regulations while some regulations cross industries. Businesses that must have a data retention policy may need it to comply with laws that govern data retention such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or IRS 1075. Even US-based companies may be subject to international legislation such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and companies that have customers in California need to understand how the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) can impact data retention. Government agencies in the US are also bound by the Freedom of Information Act and some states have “Sunshine” laws that go even further.

Businesses that are motivated to comply with regulations will need their data retention policy to reflect federal, state, and local requirements, and will need to document compliance with those requirements.

Value: Business as a Platform for Social Good

Whether an organization was established as an activist brand or has been drawn to social responsibility as investor demand has risen social responsibility, many companies are finding ways to use data to understand their social and environmental impact. This impact is often also reported on through Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting, Carbon Disclosure Projects, and reporting structures like GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark).

In these cases, organizations that use their business as a platform for social good, may identify key metrics such as energy consumption or hiring data that can be used to inform reports on social responsibility.

In closing

By understanding your organization’s values and priorities, you can ensure that its policies support those values. Every company has data to collect, manage, and dispose of, so it’s critical to have a roadmap for how to address data requirements today and into the future. This framework is a starting point to that effort because there’s nothing worse than going through the effort to implement a complex policy, only to discover that it moves the business further from its goals.

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