Dino Caputo
Job Title: Partner with EnableUC Inc. and Senior Delivery Engineer for Softchoice LP
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinocaputo/
Twitter: @dinocaputo
- How have you grown your career over time, and what do you do now?
I’ve always been customer facing throughout my entire career. When I first got into I.T. I was completing my Novell CNE certification while working at a call center assisting end users with their printers. I embraced the constantly changing landscape and always sought out to learn the latest technology. I believe this is the key for achieving constant growth. Working on Netware networks quickly became deploying Windows NT and embracing the Microsoft ecosystem. I then got into doing several years of Exchange Server implementations and migrations and this thing called BPOS (now Office 365) came along. That started the journey into helping customers move into the cloud. I now focus on helping customer implement Intelligent Communications, specifically with Microsoft Skype for Business. I help customers deploy and operate Skype and migrate them off their legacy phones systems. The next growth for me will be assisting customers deploying and adopting Microsoft Teams!
- Why did you decide to pursue consulting?
I really enjoy the interaction with various customers and find it fulfilling to learn about new organizations, their challenges and how best to help solve them.
- How do you ensure you understand the needs of a client, and provide a meaningful solution?
You need to be a great listener. It’s easy to walk into a new customer’s office and have a pre-determined solution in mind. You need to carefully listen to what your customer is telling you as well as engage and challenge them with questions and thought-provoking ideas. It also helps to write things down and continually be checking in with the customer and making sure everyone is on track to delivering the right solution. You also need to be flexible. Sometimes the agreed upon solution doesn’t turn out to be what the customer needs so you need to be agile enough to recognize this, communicate it, and establish new project goals.
- Have you ever had a client miscommunication, and what did you do to work through it?
If there ever are miscommunications in your client work, my best advice would be to call it out quickly and jointly discuss it with your customer. Don’t be afraid to raise your hand and say “my bad” or to call a meeting to get clarification on something. It’s better to check twice than to move forward with unnecessary work.
- What is your approach to teamwork?
I would say my approach to teamwork is to always be communicating with your team members. Teams break down when people work in silos. Always be checking in to make sure everyone is making progress. Try and meet regularly. Reflect on the past week and reset tasks for the upcoming week if necessary. Celebrate successes. Talk about what didn’t work so well. Learn from and support each other.