Ronda Woldmoe
Senior Account Executive

In today's nimble business climate, delivering an IT solution to a complex business problem often requires outside expertise. Through the full service approach of our Expert Services, Ambassador Solutions delivers the right talent at the right time. Technical expertise and business knowledge are requirements; but we also look beyond this and consider cultural/personality fit, commitment to customer service, and overall character. Some of those qualities that rank high on our list: vision, integrity, humility, tolerance, responsibility, and the strong desire to contribute.

An employer of choice for over 18 years, Ambassador has a large team of Career Consultants supplemented by an extensive network of Contract Consultants. We understand "one size fits none" and will respond to your unique requirements on demand by conducting a thorough evaluation of your needs and providing IT Professionals with the specific expertise you need to get the job done.

Our goal is simple: to listen and to serve while forging lasting partnerships with our clients in order to gain unique understanding of our client's business. This foundation enables us to adjust our level of involvement to meet our client's needs, delivering with competence, speed, and minimal disruption. We know we'll have the chance to provide mediocre work for you only once, but if the work is delivered as advertised, we'll be asked back again and again. This is the testament of the many clients that have done business with Ambassador Solutions for many years.

Whether you require Ambassador Expert Services for 2 weeks or 2 years, we have it covered from strategists to QA testers. If you're looking to fill full-time positions, look no further than Ambassador's permanent placement and contract-to-hire recruiting services.

Kory Geyer
Solutions Strategist

What an exciting year it has been at Ambassador for our Microsoft Solutions Practice! After 11 years of being a Microsoft Partner, we have really grown this area of our business in the last 2 years. We have made numerous strategic hires, developed and proven a very effective implementation methodology, and became a trusted and "go to" implementation partner for Microsoft.

Our Microsoft Solutions practice has evolved into the following solutions types:

• Portals
• Electronic content management & process automation
• Infrastructure & messaging
• Custom .NET applications
• Business intelligence

And since the launch of the 2007 Office System in November 2006, our projects have addressed all of these solution elements, including these:

• An intranet that promotes team collaboration and content management for a large architectural firm
• ERP data integration with SharePoint for resource management and profile search
• Corporate internet re-platforming for web content management
• Enterprise portals architecture design for a large university
• Enterprise portals architecture design for a national retailer
• Intranet and extranet for project management, content management, and collaboration for a professional services firm
• Intranet for collaboration and content management for an automotive distributor
• ISO 9000 incident reporting form automation, tracking, and repository for a life sciences company
• Enterprise document and records management for a national not-for-profit membership organization
• Bank merger intranet solution for project management and collaboration
• Vendor extranet portal solution for a national retailer

We are helping companies of all types to deliver on their value promises to their employees, customers, and stockholders. Contact us today to find out how we can help you!

Ron Thieme, Ph.D.
VP, Strategic Services

The phrase "IT strategy" has different meanings for different people. Some think of IT strategy as a list of systems that need to be replaced, or the future state of the network infrastructure. Others see it as a document that gathers dust on a shelf somewhere. Some even have an instinctive aversion to the topics of "IT" and "strategy," and when the words are put together in the same sentence, they want to run for the hills. Heaven forbid!

One can understand that perspective. If strategy is in fact just a document, or just a list of tasks to accomplish, then is there any realand lasting value for the organization?

We believe that the value of any good strategy is ultimately a change in behavior and attitudes. Roger Connors and Tim Smith describe this in their book Journey to the Emerald City. They outline four steps to behavior change: see it, own it, solve it, do it. These steps take usthrough the process of recognizing that a problem exists, taking responsibility for it, engaging yourself and providing new perspectives, and taking action.

In theworld of ITstrategy, this same concept translates tohow organizations manage their technology capability. Are business executives really seeing their true role in making technology decisions? Are they owning technology problems? Is the organization collaborating to solve the problem? Are the right actions being taken on the business and technology side?

Here are some steps you can follow to make sure your strategy work is resulting in behavioral change:

Identify what's wrong. Often the toughest issues aren't discussed openly. Organizations need to learn how to get these issues out on the table so they can address them in a constructive way. This prepares the groundwork for behavioral change.

Understand all the perspectives. Guess what? That person you disagree with probably has some very valid points. It is often the synthesis of opposing ideas that leads to a better way of doing things.

Forge the path. Once you have a shared understanding of the problem, it is time to develop a shared vision for change. It is extremely important that that vision be commonly held among the organization's leaders. Without that, any plan for action is meaningless.

Measure your progress. Behaviors don't change overnight. We might have a shared vision of the future and we believe we are all on the same path, but it takes a certain amount of vigilance to make sure we don't revert to old ways. Shared accountability goes a long way.

I would like to hear your stories about getting organizations to change behaviors. Let me know about what worked and what didn't work. We'll discuss the interesting cases in the blog section of our web site.