One critical element in making cloud work for business is to make it easy to use for both the users and your business. To ensure you are offering the best possible experience, UX (or user experience) needs to be a top concern. In this episode of the e-Core Connections podcast, our host Bruce Guptill and Mark Majers - lead UX researcher at Progressive Insurance, adjunct professor UXD at Kent State University, and author of “Make Your Customers Dance, discuss the things that need to be considered in UX planning, evolution, management and knowing how to work on these with our services partners. Other topics they get into include: Defining the term “user experience”, and why it might be time to rethink this and expand your idea of UX The danger of losing productivity and your competitive edge How often UX development and optimization requires outside assistance Plus, his long career of being a wedding DJ and how this inspired his book “Make Your Customers Dance” and how it relates to UX This episode will help you take the right next step when it comes to UX development or improvement in your business.

One of the key elements of optimizing the cloud making sure it can keep up with an ever-increasing array of IT capabilities. But how do you make sure that it works for productivity software, help desks, infrastructure, microservices, and much more? In this episode of the e-Core Connections podcast, our host Bruce Guptill and Rob Schafer - Principal for Channel ITSM Business Development at Atlassian, discuss the ins and outs of how IT organizations and how teams manage the delivery of IT services to their users. More conversation topics include: How should enterprise IT and business leaders think about and define ITSM Typical needs by enterprises and key issues that need to be resolved The changing market realities And how enterprise IT and business leaders should work with partners to make ITSM valuable and sustainable This episode will help you make better choices for ITSM to keep your business running smoothly.

Migration of business applications, data, and systems to Cloud are not new ideas. There’s been a pretty obvious global trend in migrating business software and systems to Cloud over the past decade or longer. But how do you ensure you’re doing cloud migration or modernization the right way? In this episode of the e-Core Connections podcast, our host Bruce Guptill – an IT industry analyst from Addressable Markets LLC and the Global Analyst Syndicate, talks with Tom Scott from the Open Alliance for Cloud Adoption, and the Cloud Security Alliance. Their conversation covers key cloud architecture, maturity, migration, and security issues that enterprise clients need to understand – and know how to work on with services partners. They dive in deeper and discuss topics including: The need to balance the speed of cloud vs. the speed of business The danger that comes with assuming adequate security is included and whether “good enough” is really secure Cloud maturity and adoptions strategies And the importance of having a trusted service provider to help anticipate, adapt, avoid, and fix problems If your business is planning a cloud migration or modernization, this episode will help you make sure you do it right the first time.