Esri in One Hour: Kim Rohrs on Technical Advising

Today I met with Kim for my officially last Esri in One Hour chat. Kim and I have worked together most of the summer, and she has been a great friend and coworker in the office. I took this meeting time to ask her some follow up questions about Technical Advising, as I think about where I would fit best at Esri in a professional capacity. I’ve been working with Technical Advisors all summer through most of Professional Services, but this was my first sit-down meeting to talk through elements of Technical Advising I had grown more curious about.

Kim described Technical Advising as “enablement of software already purchased.” Many customers subscribe to the Esri Enterprise Advantage Program (EEAP, see discussion with Ben Schaub) as part of purchasing software licenses, which is a 3 year enterprise agreement that also gives customers engagement with consulting services through a Technical Advisor (TA).

A Technical Advisor is the customer’s point-person for all things Esri. TA engagement with a customer begins with an onsite annual planning meeting, when the workflows, goals, and individuals involved are introduced. Throughout the year, the customer has a number of credits for consulting time, which can be budgeted with the help of the TA.

Consulting hours don’t go to project-based work in Professional Services, but more toward prototype-based work where the TA or an Esri expert the TA scopes in the desired area develop models showcasing how the customer can use ArcGIS to fulfill greater potential. The TA may use consulting hours to budget time to develop a project prototype, but the goal is for the customer to then gain familiarity, expertise, and excitement about the product, and transfer the ArcGIS knowledge directly to the customer and organization. The TA is integral to presenting possibilities for these prototypes, however, and conceptualizing both the customer’s goals as well as the GIS workflows that can help organizations meet and work beyond these goals. With consulting expertise and a knowledge of the customer, the field, and Esri software, a good match of a TA can push a customer to do new things and develop whole GIS centers of excellence helping to accelerate company goals.

Typically, the same Technical Advisor will work with a customer for 3 years or more. Kim gave me a great example of successful engagement that went far beyond this timeline, however, and had grown to GIS engagement with a customer that extended even to executive-level buy-in. Through project conceptualization, consulting, management, and work, TAs can really shape GIS engagement in a company even to these high-levels of management. This is so inspiring to see a data science reach this level of buy-in, and I have to think that it is because spatial analysis is both visually appealing and easily tied to the real-world, making impacts of mapping clear, given the right presentation and audience. I also love the process of team-management an planning associated with a TAs role, because they work with the business of getting things done with a customer throughout levels of a company. This is a very interpersonal role emphasizing great articulation of GIS concepts to individuals with various levels of familiarity, as well, which is thrilling.

EEAP credits can also be used toward training for technical transfer, which the TA can outline in the yearly customer plan, following the annual planning meeting. This is also key to the consulting emphasis on training customers to be self-sufficient and adept with ArcGIS to increase the GIS capacity in their problem solving.

We talked more about the annual planning session: preparation, what it looks like, and how it is turned into an actionable plan for the year. The annual planning session is a big deal, and includes a lot of pre-planning. Usually, the session is formatted as a mix of presentations where Esri can work between GIS or IT teams and higher levels of executive priorities. Annual planning sessions often try to include addressing of “sticking points” or road blocks to GIS progress, and invite key members of the company who may play a large role in accelerating adoption of the Science of Where. The session serves to expose stakeholders to GIS benefits to get where they want to go, through pulling in experts (which can also include Solutions Engineers), and talking about how specific software can support company goals.

Kim emphasized the importance of a strong Esri network as a Technical Advisor. A TA is often tasked with scoping work for specific customer needs, and a strong network allows for the right professionals to work on the right customer needs. A TA manages resources and tracks along progress for their engagements, and can have many concurrent accounts running at once. I think Kim says she currently has 8 EEAP accounts, which allows for a lot of context-switching, delegation, and managing of concurrent projects. Customer engagement and project management were the big two skills she mentioned in TA-ing well, which is a balance of technical expertise and team/interpersonal consulting skills.

Kim likes TA-ing because it allows her to engage with a host of interesting roles and fields. As a TA, you are able to work on a diverse set of problems with a diverse set of customers. There are also different ways to structure TA engagements to minimize or maximize context-switching. As a TA, you could work on areas related to one another in subject, such as energy market projects, or a diverse set of projects to work in many areas. However, Kim did mention that it is nice to dive deep into an area through taking similar accounts, because technical expertise is often industry-specific.

It has been super valuable and helpful working with Kim for a lot of the summer. She has a clear and direct way of outlining project scopes, requirements, and context, and I have really enjoyed learning from and with her. I can see her as a very clear and articulate TA with any of her customers, and appreciated having time to pick her brain about more ins and outs of her role. Thank you again, Kim, I really enjoyed working with you!