Brad knows how to turn a vision into reality using technology and systems. He is passionate about the efficient and effective application of Information Technology to solve business problems and create value.

His IT management philosophy and positive influence on the Uncommon team and their work for clients, stems from his experiences and resulting core beliefs:

• 50% of the solution lies in clearly defining the problem. IT goes wrong when the technicians work on solutions without a clear understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

• At the end of the day, IT is just an expense – even if it is a revenue producing product. IT’s primary purpose is to leverage people’s time.

• Excellent IT systems are the result of excellent IT people and process.

• Excellent IT people are committed to continuous and frequent measurable improvement, not perfection. There are many methodologies for designing, developing, and deploying IT toolsets that can succeed, but they all share a commitment to an iterative approach - with frequent releases of incrementally better, but always fully functional, toolsets.

Brad’s primary roles at Uncommon are:

1. Outsourced CIO - Brad has consistently combined the brightest talent and best technical tools to deliver innovative solutions with measurable impact.

2. Translator - There are a lot of languages and dialects in business and IT. The most common translation needed is between technicians and entrepreneurs, but the variations are endless. Entrepreneurs can speak sales, operations, vision, management…with varying degrees of hope, commitment, or disillusionment. Technicians range from the ultra-technical developer or engineer to the business-specific practitioner of any number of business art forms (e.g. lawyer, factory engineer, customer service manager, accountant, pastor, etc.) Brad is often called on to translate between these various points of view.

3. Torch Bearer - Once he has grasped the vision of a client’s leadership team, Brad champions their perspective throughout the project, guiding toward results that align with the client’s goals. As a guiding principle, Brad is constantly asking “What will our client think of this particular piece of work?”

4. Navigator - Brad is constantly challenging his teams to keep their eye on the outcomes agreed-upon with the client. Like a ship crossing the ocean, it is natural for an IT team to be slightly off course the majority of the time, but Brad’s aim is to constantly bring the team’s attention back to the original compass heading of cost savings, quality, scalability, or otherwise.

5. Coach - Teams perform best when everyone has clarity about their role on the team and they extend trust efficiently to internal and external team members. As a coach, Brad does whatever it takes to make sure everyone is as clear as possible as often as possible, and then encourages them once they demonstrate that clarity.

Personal Value Proposition

Brad creates value for clients by:

• Thinking outside the box - and working to solve not just the problem we were asked to solve, but really getting to the root of the client’s need and creating solutions that address those true needs.
• Insuring value justification - Brad asks the tough questions of the client’s team before designing a solution. He works to avoid automating unless that automation will reduce expenses, increase revenue, or improve quality in a way that impacts the client’s core vision and mission.
• Considering the client’s culture and custom fitting to it - Too many businesses wear their IT solutions like they’re Dad’s shoes. There are plenty of rules-of-the-day and best practices preaching to organizations about what they should do with IT – but without any awareness of the nature of the specific business challenges that organization intends to tackle. Brad helps clients make their systems an extension of their mission, vision, and strategy – like a custom wardrobe expresses an individual’s unique style.
• Leading the Uncommon team and bringing our culture to life - Ultimately, the best thing Brad does for Uncommon’s clients is to build them a group of professionals working in a culture that has been fine-tuned to serve efficiently and effectively. We earn trust and allow our clients to approach their work with the sense that they are backed by a team that can and will help them accomplish their most important goals.

Joel is one of those “I can’t believe I get paid to do this work” kind of guys. He knows he is fortunate to be doing work that allows him to create value, work that is also fulfilling, challenging, and rewarding.

Joel’s enthusiasm for designing and building great software has led to significant success for his clients.

In his role managing Uncommon’s “Core” software development team, Joel makes sure clients get stable and maintainable software that elegantly serves their business needs cost effectively.

As a long-time team member who joined Uncommon Solutions during its founding year of 2002, Joel has helped shape Uncommon’s unique culture. His solid track record of partnering with clients to create business value is impressive.

Joel’s IT philosophy can be summed up as “Get it right. Get it done. And don’t over-solve the problem.”

Personal Value Proposition

Leading software development efforts at Uncommon, Joel’s guiding principle is “How can we create the most business value for the client…within the available budget?”

Joel’s technical focus is on “Core” technologies – tools and approaches that are “tried and true”, and have been proven to be effective and reliable. Though his focus is on building solutions with primarily mainstream technologies, there are inevitably components required to create a great solution – that fall into the newer and emerging technology category. Joel works closely with John H. on each project to create the best blend of Core and Candidate components that provide the best fit for the client’s current and anticipated future needs.

In his primary role at Uncommon, Joel creates value for clients by:

1. Meeting with clients and understanding their needs and concerns, as well as their perspectives on business and IT.

   1. Joel adds the most value when building bridges of understanding between business-focused and technical team members. Joel deftly balances the business needs and wants with what is technically possible given the constraints of budget and time.

2. Co-leading the Uncommon software developer team (with John H.) Joel:

   1. Mentors and supports the development team, so that his many years of knowledge and success can positively influence every project.

   2. Owns the software development “Standards and Best Practices” – by developing and enforcing coding standards, and the Uncommon software development methodology. The results?

   1. Efficient software code that speaks directly to the business problem, and is:

   1. Understandable

   2. Cost-effective to maintain and change

   3. "Hard to Break & Easy to Fix“

3. Managing to success metrics of:

   1. Designing and completing just the “right” number of project iterations

   1. Neither too many - over-solving the problem with solutions that are too complex, expensive or time-consuming

   2. Nor too few – where the business problems are never understood well-enough to be solved

   3. Getting the most business value out of each project iteration by driving for understanding and agreement about how to best solve the current business problems – and ONLY the current and agreed-upon problems

4. Serving on the Strategic Leadership Team by participating in decisions on technology, personnel, and business strategy

In a recent interview, Scott was asked “If you could demonstrate only one thing to your clients about you and your leadership philosophy, what would that be?”

“I want them to know…that I care.”

It is his heart for servant-leadership that inspires everything that Scott does at Uncommon, whether he is managing his delivery team, leading the design and delivery of infrastructure solutions for clients, overseeing Uncommon’s relationship development with new clients, or participating on the Uncommon Strategic Leadership Team.

Scott is passionate about solving tough IT problems for Uncommon’s clients and empowering them to use technology to be and do more with their businesses.

Personal Value Proposition

“If I am doing my job right, then my clients can better serve their clients, with less effort, reduced friction, and with increased quality. AND their employees get to go home on-time, in a good mood, to enjoy their personal lives with their families. You see, Information Technology is more to me than servers and desktops and software. IT is a powerful way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of my clients’ business operations in real and immediate ways. In ways that matter.

I want to eradicate ‘IT hassle’ for our clients – and to positively affect peoples’ lives as a result.

The exciting part is my clients are using technology so that they can better lead and serve their clients – and I get to be a significant part of that, making things work better from end to end.”

In his primary role at Uncommon, Scott adds value to clients’ businesses by:

1. Serving as Chief Infrastructure Architect

   1. Providing technical leadership on projects

   2. Providing Tier-3 infrastructure support and trouble-shooting

2. Working face-to-face with clients to:

   1. Learn about their businesses and then to work together to discover ways to solve current problems

   2. Align Uncommon’s value-creation with clients’ current and anticipated future needs

3. Once an appropriate solution has been decided upon, Scott’s leadership role becomes:

   1. Research and testing of the “best solution design, and supporting components”

   2. Assembling the Uncommon team that will build, install, and support the solution

   1. Assuring “best fit” in 3 areas – technology expertise, personality and client culture

   3. Providing technical leadership through quality control – enforcing architectural consistency and ensuring best practices are followed

“It’s not just a project or a technology solution – we are working on things that directly and significantly affect our clients’ businesses. When their businesses are improved, so are their people’s abilities to develop and prosper professionally and to better serve their customers, families, and communities.”

Vicky’s passion and experience in building strong win-win relationships results in less friction and smoother project flow, a better understanding of the client’s business environment and problems to be solved, and faster more efficient resolution of challenges that inevitably arise during any IT project.

Vicky is equally skilled at leading 1-week mini-projects to complex year-long major efforts.

Personal Value Proposition

Vicky creates value for clients by:

Digging in to accurately understand business needs and frame the problem set.

1. Asking the right questions to clarify “Why?” and to really understand important details before valuable resources are used to design or build anything.

2. Working to offset the usual tendency to jump to a solution - i.e. "Let’s get starting building something technically cool right away! We’ll figure out the details later…”

1. 20+ years of business and IT project experience allow Vicky to “know” when the right balance has been reached of sufficiently detailed requirements to move forward with the design and build phases.

3. Advocating for solutions that can evolve over time to include more business functions and create additional value as resources are available to invest in extending the original solution.

Managing the delivery team and process

1. Bringing the right people to the project, and making sure all team members truly “get it” and ensuring they clearly demonstrate an understanding of the business needs.

2. Facilitating frequent “team check-ins” using an agile style of project management that results in getting things in front of the client fast, getting feedback right away, changing course quickly when necessary, and avoiding waste.

3. Making sure the team has resources they need to be successful.

4. Removing obstacles for the project team so they can keep moving forward.

5. Managing administrative and business details, so the technical team can stay focused.

6. Developing and supporting collaboration with the client's internal team.

Keeping the client informed

1. Telling stakeholders what they need to know, when they need to know it, in their desired format.

2. Tracking and reporting budget and timeline updates.

1. Identifying and reporting project challenges, finding and agreeing on the best ways to get things back on track, assessing project impact.

Serving on Uncommon’s Strategic Leadership Team by participating in decisions on technology direction, personnel, project methods and processes, and overall business strategy