Don’t just enable technology users. Empower them.
After graduating with a liberal arts degree in 2008, I spent my summer working at a local library in rural Vermont. As one of the few staff members who “understood” technology, I was tasked with coming up with a technology roadmap, as budget cuts were being enforced on public libraries across the country.
The plan itself was easy enough to conceive: move into the 21st century and go digital! The library had been operating strictly in paper form: everything from the catalog to the circulation records (including all patron data), was stored on paper. As local libraries move into the digital age, they need to retain their place as the focal point for many communities across America, and embracing technology was only going to help them do that.
As the summer came to an end, the biggest challenge was not technological. It was getting the mostly-volunteer staff to adopt a completely new way of performing their day-to-day tasks — something that hadn’t changed in decades. This wasn’t just about enabling them so that they knew and understood how things should be done; this was about making them feel empowered by the tools that were now available to them, so that they would be excited about how things could be done.
Technology is just a tool until we put it in the hands of empowered end users; only then do we see its true potential.
As part of the PlanGrid Professional Services team, my goal is to help our customers feel empowered by the tools we offer them. I love helping people become familiar with new systems; from working with enterprise customers in the Greater New York area (including state and local governments), to working with students at local high schools in Brooklyn, there’s nothing better than watching people realize how much technology will improve their lives.
Much like the libraries I worked with, the construction industry is seeing how technology can be used to replace processes that were primarily paper-based. If you’re in the construction industry, PlanGrid will change the way you work, increase productivity, and decrease costs — and I’m ready to empower you with it. Let’s talk: sophat@plangrid.com
About the author: Sophat Sam is the Technical Services Lead at PlanGrid, based out of Brooklyn, NY. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College and his Masters of Architecture from University of Massachusetts. Prior to joining PlanGrid, Sophat was a Client Solutions Professional at IBM where he helped customers in New York and New Jersey with enterprise content management solutions.
