Tackling the language of collaboration

I’m a former Forrester Analyst who focused on helping my clients solve immediate business problems related to information management, knowledge management, and collaboration by applying the right mix of technology and culture changes to their organizations.

As an analyst, I gained exposure to many of the market players in the Enterprise 2.0 space as well as a wide variety of business concerns and needs.  Prior to my work as an industry analyst, I worked at Fidelity Investments for almost 15 years.  During my last few years at Fidelity I was a community manager for many internal communities of practice.  I implemented wikis, forums, blogs, and other web 2.0 technologies to support many business and technology groups.  I also established a community management practice, helping drive consistency in the way we implemented internal communities.

I was an Enterprise Architect at Fidelity for seven years.  As an EA, I established guidelines for the performance testing of XML Web Services.  I wrote the secure code guidelines for .NET coding practices.  I managed an internal consultancy providing service to the development and engineering departments.  And I managed the Technology Directions process — an arm of the IT Governance organization which helped drive consistency of practice across 250 technology area across the corporation.

Gil Yehuda is a consultant who helps entreprises leverage enterprise 2.0 concepts to fulfill their business objectives.

Deb has been studying the culture and technology of collaboration since 1998. She's currently driving the digital and social media teams crazy at Open Text as Director of Product Marketing there.

Deb  has been working in the online B to C and B to B space for over 15 years, primarily as a product strategist.

Her philosophy of successful products can be summed up in 4 points: 1. Know your user and their community. 2. Make sure you’re building something that they will care about. 3. Ensure you have a business model that will let you survive the ramp-up and 4. Have a better customer acquisition plan than “if you build it, they will come”.

Deb Lavoy is the Founder of ProductFour consultants, a group of talented people who get you, your product and your business and can help you see the forest for the trees.

Deb is also deeply excited about collaborative teams, leadership and organizations and the cultural and technical elements that enable  it.

If you can barely contain your excitement when you talk about this stuff, then we should talk. If you’re just figuring it out, then we should talk.
Deb has been helping consumer online and enterprise companies develop effective product marketing and strategy, at aol, adobe, and currently Open Text. She believes that all business value is derived from user value – so first build a great product that serves a real need that real people have- and go from there.

Open Text, an enterprise software company and leader in enterprise content management, helps organizations manage and gain the true value of their business content. Open Text brings two decades of expertise supporting 50 million users in 114 countries. Working with our customers and partners, we bring together leading Content Experts to help organizations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes, mitigate risk, manage compliance and improve competitiveness.