Thursday, June 30, 2016

Now Hiring: We’re Looking for People with Drive to Succeed

By John Monahan

A company on the move always relies on the talents of its people. And with a strategic plan tailored to smart growth in the year ahead, Convergent Technologies Group is looking to hire people with the right skills and drive to advance us on our journey.

We are looking for people who:

1. Thrive in an entrepreneurial environment. We believe in hiring smart people and giving them the opportunity to do good work. Ideally, new employees will bring some unique and proven skills within the IT industry, but we also offer tailored training with our key manufacturing partners. As a small business, we give our people the opportunity to push their boundaries and learn new skills with our products as well as our day-to-day operations. This is a two-way street: We’ll give you the nourishment you need to recognize your potential and turn it all into something real.

2. Show passion about being a solid team contributor. We believe in giving our people the freedom and tools to forge their own path, as they deliver work that advances us on some ambitious goals that we share. Together, we can make a bigger impact than within our individual roles. We work hard as a team, and we celebrate our successes regularly. (Have you heard about our corporate holiday trip each December? Last year, we hosted our employees and their significant others on an all-expenses-paid weekend in New York City!)

3. Find innovative ways to get the job done. After all, we’re in the IT business, where inventiveness and problem solving are part of daily life. We want people who demonstrate creativity in how they work, which opens up new, market-differentiating opportunities in how we partner with and support our clients. Our manufacturing partners are moving at lightning pace with product innovations, and our people need to find the best ways to engage with customers to implement the right solutions.

4. Want to push our business to hit the next level. We’re at a pivotal moment in our corporate evolution, and we know that building the right talent pool is essential to achieving some aggressive-but-attainable business goals. We need people who have the drive to push up to those heights, while also maintaining our hallmark of high-touch customer service and ensuring our long-term sustainability.
Over the past decade, Jeff and I have consciously crafted a business where the contributions of our employees are recognized and rewarded, starting with competitive salaries and complemented with generous bonuses. By building a business where people want to come to work, we’ve grown at paces that consistently outperform others in our industry.

What roles are open now?

Right now, as we look at our business forecasts for the coming year, we are hiring to expand our sales and marketing outreach. We want people who not only understand our vision, but can see themselves as key contributors in achieving that vision. More specifically, we are hiring:

Enterprise account managers – serve as the critical bridge between our clients and our services team. Communications skills and product knowledge are critical for this role.

Junior marketing specialist – supports our overall marketing strategy, particularly as we move into new markets and offer an expanded product portfolio.

Junior accounting associate – aids in back-office functions that keep our business running smoothly with solid financial reporting.

Applying to CTG is easy: Just send your resume to resume@ctgva.com. Most importantly, tell us why we need to hire you – and what you can offer to help CTG accelerate our future.

John Monahan is co-founder of Convergent Technologies Group.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Takeaways from Discover 2016: IT Solutions that Work for You


by John Monahan and Jeff Garell

Ask any of our team members and guests for our top three takeaways from Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Discover 2016 last week in Las Vegas, and you’ll probably not get the same answers from everyone. With so much information to gather and technology to observe and experience and top experts to hear, we often branched out to make the most of the agenda.

Without question, however, the centerpiece of Discover was our interaction with CEO Meg Whitman and all the HPE leadership. Once a year, Convergent Technologies Group hosts clients in a venue where they hear directly from the top minds in the industry. As an HPE Platinum Partner, we have rare access to connect our customers with those who are bringing cutting-edge products to the market.  These general sessions, demo labs and innovation break-outs help us deliver a level of expertise that differentiates the relationships that CTG offers. As a partner in our clients’ success, we connect you with the right people and solutions so you can do what you do best – and accelerate your growth.

Of course, the annual Discover showcase is when HPE unveils new products and solutions upgrades. Let us share a few favorites that we’re excited to be offering:

  •  HPE Synergy: This is composable infrastructure, which brings a new architecture that allows you to construct your resources to your exact application needs, coupled with software-defined intelligence and a unified API. Two of our CTG engineers were among the first 100 individuals worldwide to earn certification in this new platform.
  • CloudSystem 10: Do you work with hybrid IT? Then this is the comprehensive cloud solution you need. You can stand it up as a private cloud or integrate it with your existing cloud, virtualized and traditional resources.
  • HPE Edgeline IoT Systems:  Before too long, more than 20 billion devices will be connected to the “edge” of traditional networks – this is what the Internet of Things is all about. HPE has unveiled Edgeline, a platform that helps you make the most of information on the fly. This might be from crews in the field, sales reps on the retail floor – basically anywhere that you are creating data that can drive your business. Breaking new ground, Edgeline will help you quickly gain insights from that data at the edge.
  •  Hyperconverged380: With our unique capabilities in hyperconverged systems, you know this got our attention.  Designed specifically to help mid-sized businesses deploy virtual machines in minutes, it also is a foundational step for those organizations to move to a hybrid infrastructure. This will allow you to spend more time innovating, while increasing your productivity and flexibility.
  • Docker Shipping with Servers: HPE will be shipping Docker, our go-to application container platform, with all its servers. Why does this matter? This automatically incorporates what you need for your modern data center when you install your server, with cross-platform performance, appropriate security and integrated support.
  • Cloud transition: Dropbox has transitioned from the Amazon Web Services public cloud and onto an all-HPE cloud solution. The result is “industrial-strength, enterprise-grade security and manageability.” This is easing the transition to the cloud for CIOs everywhere.
  • Better IT management: With OneView 3.0, you can simplify day-to-day operations, deploy applications faster and enable your IT to take advantage of new tools.
We’re already meeting and talking with clients about how they might benefit from these new solutions. Each enterprise has different needs, but we have definitely brought back new ideas and strategies that we can tailor to all of our customers.

What solution can we bring to you to advance you to the next level?


John Monahan and Jeff Garell are co-founders of CTG.