What Languages Do You Speak?

English, French, Dutch, Portuguese? Accounting, Marketing, Finance, IT? Or maybe SQL, C#, XML, JSON? 

In this digital age, most of us speak at least a small amount of technology language.  It might be used when speaking to colleagues, or more casually at home when you attempt to describe certain technology to a family member (or when your children try to explain that same technology to you!). For example: when your father wants to know how exactly pictures from his smartphone are stored in the cloud and viewable on his TV and he asks you where the wire between those two devices is, you know you have a challenge ahead of you. Regardless of the context or purpose, “techspeak” is fully integrated into our daily lives.

In business, speaking this language is critical to ensure that products and services meet the needs of customers. Individuals who can speak fluently about technology but fail at describing the end-user experience will never get their bid accepted.  On the other hand, a true visionary who has no technical aptitude will fail if their otherwise brilliant idea has no grounding in current technologies.

When designing a new software application, evaluating data storage options, discussing equipment acquisitions, or simply making process improvements, having a solid understanding of both technology and user needs is important enough to warrant its own discipline. It’s so important that a defined role has been created to manage it. The “technical liaison” serves as the bridge between technical staff and other departments, such as marketing, customer service, or accounting. The technical liaison must first understand the overall business strategy and then be able to identify and specify technological solutions that will meet needs while keeping in alignment with that strategy. They need to be able to explain how the solutions work, in terms that everyone can understand.

Speaking the right language is more important now than it has ever been. Here at AdvantageCS, we speak multiple languages. We have over 30 years of experience delivering world-class subscription management, membership management, marketing, sales, and customer relationship software. We speak to all levels of an organization---sales, marketing, IT, customer service, accounting, and executive management. Integrating technological solutions into various business settings is one of the things that we do best.

So, what language do you speak?  Chances are, we speak that language too!