Nancy Hammervik Posts

CompTIA’s Advisory Councils held their 2014 Council Planning Meeting in Miami last week. I attended this meeting, and while the beautiful weather outside was certainly a perk, it was the conversation inside that made the trip most enjoyable and inspiring. We kicked off the meetings with a round table discussion led by CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux. Participating were the chairs and vice chairs of our Vendor, Partner and Telecom Advisory Councils, all senior channel executives w ...

Last week, I was in our nation’s capital, along with 60 or so other CompTIA staff, members and TECNA partners, taking part in CompTIA’s second annual TechVoice D.C. Fly-In. While I would not consider myself politically savvy, I am politically curious. I have tremendous appreciation and respect for this country’s history and government. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to walk the halls of the Senate and Congressional offices, let alone sit down with policy makers to represent the IT ...

Cheers to 2013! Happy New Year, CompTIA members, partners and channel folk. On behalf of all of us at CompTIA, we wish you your best year yet. The best way to kick off the New Year is to resolve to come to CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting (AMM) in Chicago, March 12th and 13th. CompTIA’s AMM brings together 250 of our most committed and engaged members, working together in defined communities to drive the IT industry forward. Vendor/distributor channel execs and solution/service prov ...

This month, CompTIA welcomes 104 U.K.-based solution provider organizations to its membership fold – a direct result of our recent merger with Accredit UK. These highly skilled and qualified information and communications technology (ICT) professionals all have one thing in common; their organizations have undergone a rigorous audit and assessment of their technical and business practices and have achieved the highest standards of operation, marked by their Accredit UK credential.I have had the ...

While CompTIA’s Breakaway has nearly a 30-year history in the channel, it is truly breaking new ground, offering the industry a powerful channel event, unlike any other -- and the industry is responding in a big way!  With the event just a week away (July 29 – Aug. 1 at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas),  CompTIA is looking forward to welcoming more than a thousand channel executives from solution provider, vendor, distributor, media and other channel organizations.   Breaking away from ...

On my way into work a few weeks ago, mindlessly listening to talk radio, I heard one of the most exciting pieces of news I’ve heard in a long time.  The Girl Scouts of America had added three new badges to its program: computer expert, digital movie maker and website designer.  I actually found myself cheering out loud and high fiving the steering wheel!As a woman who has spent nearly my entire career in high tech industry, I am acutely aware of the gender gap.  From executive meetings to client ...

On my way into work a few weeks ago, mindlessly listening to talk radio, I heard one of the most exciting pieces of news I’ve heard in a long time. The Girl Scouts of America had added three new badges to its program: computer expert, digital movie maker and website designer. I actually found myself cheering out loud and high fiving the steering wheel! As a woman who has spent nearly my entire career in high tech industry, I am acutely aware of the gender gap. From executive meetings to clien ...

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines trust as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something” and “one in which confidence is placed”. While that description seems pretty straightforward, building that type of relationship in an IT business is actually very complicated. The number of changing variables inside these organizations can easily shift the attention away from customers, so extra efforts are required to stay focused.The difficulty escalates as s ...

The old 80/20 rule – you know, 20 percent of your business produces 80 percent of your revenue – seems like one of the IT channel’s laws of nature. As sure as rivers flow to the sea, most IT vendors commit the majority of their budget, resources and focus to the 15 to 20 percent of partners that drive the most revenue. These are the relationships with the greatest vendor engagement – strong channel programs, training and education platforms, industry insight, peer-to-peer events, and so on.Meanw ...

If you could recognize one individual for their accomplishments in IT, who would it be?Few of today’s creators and innovators gain the level of fame and respect that Einstein or Edison did during their heyday. In an era when anyone with a reality television series can be a star, those who make significant contributions to mankind are often overlooked or their names get lost among the members of large corporate work teams. True innovators often shy away from the accolades, deferring the credit to ...