# Request
In term of the interview, I want you to provide a couple a real cases where you've been driving IT sales + IT Projects/Programs (approach, stakeholder management, why you believe you did the right thing, what did you achieve). Pick examples where it worked well and examples where it failed (including lesson learned).

# Approach
Map these to my experience :
- Sales
- Project Management
- IT Methodology
- People Management
- B2B IT sector experience

# Driving IT sales
Wimba : Sales Manager
key learning
- key success factors
- technique
- breakdown new + repeat

I joined Wimba, a start-up with an innovative VoIP technology in the first few months since its incorporation. I grew sales from scratch and led it to XX M in the course of little less than two years.
This was a challenge because :
- we had a technology, but not a product
- we had no (paying) customers
- there was a number of markets we could seek, and we had to choose carefully which one to take and 
in which order because of limited resources
- the technology was innovative, hence there were no real market for it, it had to be created
- towards the end of the second year, cash in the bank became scarce

My approach was to :
- define a sales strategy/tactics
  - focus on the e-learning market, the educational segment
    - key at that stage of the company was to bring in sales quick and nail down a PoC
    - other markets which seemed interesting would require more resources and time than available 
    , were also more competitive, and more risk-averse to partnering with small structures 
    - we had a professor in the team which would facilitate lead generation
- adopt a consistent sales process
  - generate leads
    - incoming
      - recommendation for early adopters
      - professor network
      - after promotion in relevant papers targeting the segment
      - after viewing demo website 
      - repeat sales (nothing in first year, but we switched to subscription billing)
    - outgoing
      - cold calling
      - trade fairs
  - identify needs
    - in-house meeting or asynchronous conversations
  - qualify/prioritize prospect
    - means sometimes rejecting low-value sales
    - prioritizing high-value sales
      - large amount due to ad-hoc consulting : go slow and deeper in need analysis
      - small amount : prioritize
        - high-referral value (i.e. major reference)
        - high-likelihood of repeat sales (subscription model)  
  - demo / offer presentation
    - reassess product/need fit
    - address objections
    - investigate buying process
      - approval process
      - budget, willingness to pay, and buyer
      - key decision makers
  - negotiate/close sale
  - ask for referrals
- adopt a consistent lifetime customer management
  - support
  - direct line
  - only interface with Quality team on behalf of the customer
  - regular contact through newsletter, wishes, direct calls 

Result of such efforts, was :
- the closing after 5 months without any sales, and chasing many 
markets at once, of the first sale, however small.
- landing of two major integration projects
  - Assimil : leader of language learning methods (books, cds, dvds)
    - we proposed them to pass their books online using our technnology
    - we generated the idea ourselves, then build a demo to convince them
    - from then, the sales process was started
    - resulted in a major reference from which we were able to tackle other educational
    company away from the current universities customer base
  - Assimil helped landing Pearson, whom contact we got through our professor network
    - Pearson was our biggest contracts and ended up being more than 1MM euros
    - that in turn helped us find a buyer at a time where investor money was scarce
    - company ended up in Blackboard Education Technology and Services, an e-learning leader with
     a strong US base.

In Assimil as it was not a defined need, it was necessary to be persistent, proactive, and address 
the right person in the organization. That took three demonstrations to three different people to
 find the right attitude to our proposal. From that on we delved and intensify our relationship, 
 giong as far as to build a custom pilot with their content and our technology. It took another 4
  months to sign a letter of intent, so we took financial risks to land that sale.
   
In Pearson, the process was quite complex and much more structured, with a typical tender/RFP 
phase. They already had a defined need, we had to prove that our technology could cover that need, that we had the man power and knowledge to perform and manage the integration of both our technological base. The fact that we were a small  structure actually played in our favor as we could be completely dedicated to them. Also 
for that specific technology competition were relatively scarce.

Managed one sales assistant and a marketing assistant

CHECK THAT AGAINST THE EVALUATION CRITERIA OF JAN / JOB REQUIREMENT


# Driving IT project/programs
- Program management
  - Lyonnaise des Eaux

What is it?
- implementation of a new IT CC&B system to improve customer care in a context of increased 
deregulation and competition
- key figures
  - 4 years
  - 12 MMeuros to Accenture???
  - impact 200+ functions which are related to water distribution, management, and customer care 
  and billing
- program management
  - RFP
  - choice of technological partners (Accenture/Cap)
  - definition of objectives, planning and milestones
    - recommended an approach which minimizes risks by changing one thing at a time, and 
    proceeding step by step, all preceded with a pilot
  - setting up the project team on client side (direction metiers, direction SI, PMO)
  - definition of scope and objectives for negotiation, selection of IT integrators
  - definition of IT integrators incentive structure (milestones, bonus)
  - definition of IT integrators "pilotage" (team on their side, communication process, 
  escalation, etc.)
    - Client Quality Management Assessment (revue periodique de la qualite du projet)
    - every 3 months or at milestones
  - breakdown on the project in 5 LOTS
    - CC&B specified, implemented and deployed only on a pilot site  
    - Industrialisation and deployment preparation
    - Design and implement of change management
      - planning
      - key stake holders
      - target people
      - training documents
    - deployment nation-wide
    - corrective and evolutive maintenance
    

PMO:
  - planning and follow-up of all projects 
  - scope management
  - change management
  - configuration management
  - risk and issue management
  - measure and collection of quality indicators
  - quality review
  - review and approval of document deliverables
  - review and approval of software deliverables
  - continuous improvement
  - communication/interfacing with key stakeholders
  
On my side :
  - 3 people in PMO
  - me in charge of follow-up of RFP and LOT1/5
    - ad-hoc and regular reporting to project direction (client-side)
    - program definition and planning with project executives (consulting side and client side)
    - program definition and planning with project teams (breakdown in sub-project with 
    milestones, key stakeholders, follow-up tool, etc.)
    - identification of project risks
    - mitigating desviation risks
    - definition of quality indicators
  - main risk mitigation was to first implement the system without changing the processes, i.e. 
  match the new system to the existing process which means mapping ALL the processes (some were 
  not or were not adequately mapped)
  - then move to improved processes with updates in the system

- Project management
  - a lot of 3-month short-term implementation plan ;
    - telecommunications sales dynamization
      - promotion : shop appearance, local offers
      - sales force : training, standardized sales process, incentive/objective structure and 
      quantitization
      - improved tooling
      - product mix in shops
      - distribution/logistics
    - coordinating SPOCs, reporting to VP Sales & Marketing, implementing correcting actions in 
    case of desviation against target
- One failed example??
  - now : sparksnetwork, software development, failed to communicate the risks with sufficient 
  strength to the team, which lead to a difficult period and recapitalisation of the company 
  - Lessons learned : in a case of a distributed company, direct communication is key (email does
   not work when it is important)

  # failed project
  - current startup
    - technology and operational risks
      - we cant really be picky about the people we hire, because there is not such a big pool to
       choose from
      - we picked somebody as a tech lead who did not have a good knowledge of front-end and was 
      part-time
      - we agreed to a change in the set of technologies that we were using, and that was a 
      mistake, we lost two months and 20% of our dev budget
        - migration cost
        - learning cost
        - difficulty to find people with this very specific technologies
      - we did not have a dev management in place
        - we delegated to the team lead but he actually build nothing and communication was poor,
         and that was only a three people team, all part-timers, but distributed
      - Lessons learnt:
        - even if the structure is small, you still need to have a clearly defined plan:
          - objectives
          - roles/responsibilities
          - application software -> architecture first
          - clear timeline
          - fast development cycle and iteration -> agile methodology
        - you need to pay attention to the agency problem
          - dev do what they are interested in first, not necessarily what is good for the 
          company, even if you give them equity
          - motivation of part-timers is more volatile
        - we do AGILE now, and it seems to be working but we took a hit in terms of budget and 
        timeline
    - We just raised some funding, so I did what I came for

# Other
- wrote a large number of proposals as a consultant
  - requires business acumen, and listening to the customer needs, and also imagining it
  - 1 of my proposal led to a client meeting (selling omega3 krill products online)
