Why Tito???

Over the last 10 days more than 100 Residents, Community Leaders and Outside of Youngstown interested parties have asked me "Why Tito?". Let me start by saying I don't represent any political party or political action committee.  These are truly the thoughts and opinions of me, Ketuan Baldwin as an individual but based on research, deep conversations with current, past and future leaders with a vested interest in Youngstown. I don't have a vote in the race to elect the next mayor in the city of Youngstown, but I'll still share my thoughts.

Why Tito? I look at this in reverse and ask "Why not Tito?" He is a man that's had both success and failures in the titles and roles that his held as Husband, Father, Community Leader, Social Worker, etc. I believe that it's truly his time based on the challenges and needs of Youngstown today and over the next four years. I've watched him from different angles, Inside-Out and Outside-In. He always had a Mindset of Growth for himself and the community that he serves.  This growth mindset is what has motivated a 17-year-old father not to be a statistic to the environment that has been demoting to many African-American men in the same situation. His growth mindset has also allowed him to grow from bad decision or mistakes and use those as learning opportunities to blossom personally and professionally.

Having a Growth Mindset

There are many opinions on what the qualities of a Mayor should be. I believe the Mayor of Youngstown should have balance. Someone who understands the challenges of citizens of Youngstown, but also has the ability to integrate inclusive solutions for these challenges. Someone who has a deep love and concern for the outcome of the people.  Someone with a track record of service to the community. Someone who can motivate, delegate to, and help grow future Leaders. These are all things I've seen Tito accomplish with a balance over the years.  Here is a quick example that I experienced on a personal level.

When Tito was the 3rd Ward City Councilmen, I reached out to him in 2008 as a 24-year-old homeowner who had been recently elected as the President of Neighborhood Homeowners Association. I sent him an email without having a prior relationship with him and asked two questions.

1. Can you help me make Arlington Heights one of the Premier neighborhoods in Youngstown?
2. Can you mentor me as I attempt to use this model from Arlington Heights to create impactful change throughout the city?

Without hesitation, he replied back to the email with a simple statement, "Let meet to discuss your goals farther." Later that week he came by and shared with him the details of my vision for the Neighborhood. He gave me the tools, resources, and contacts to accomplish my goals. One of those contacts was former Mayor Chief of Staff, Jason Whitehead, now Executive Director of Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority. I told him that Community Center is the centerpiece of this community, but the homeowners and other don't have access to it. I asked, "How can we expand the programming and create perks for those homeowners who have made an investment in this community?" This eventually lead to free access and more activities for those living in that neighborhood.

There are other candidates who have qualities of a Mayor, but I haven't seen each of them have the same Balance. I've seen other candidates be amazing leaders, but lack service to the community or vice versa. Tito has proven his ability to have both in parallel. Our Mayor will be Youngstown representative to Mahoning County, State of Ohio and Nationally. A proven and tested leader is needed at this time in history for the city. Someone free of corruption, someone with a true challenger and growth mindset. After losing the primary elect in 2013, Tito could have gone off in the sunset with stable job and family, but he challenged himself to become better and conquer his opponent 4 years later, while other candidates may look for the easy road to be elected.  I understand completely that when and how you entered a race is very strategic, but when you face tough challenges head-on, it says something about who you are. Tito has shown in a variety of ways that failure can be turned into success with proper planning and a growth mindset. He may or may not be the leader needed for the next 10 or 20 years, but for the next four years, I believe his education, experience, and heart have given him the honor and right to serve in this role. 

 Balanced Leadership

Regardless of which candidate actually wins the election on Tuesday, November 7th, 2017, I'm more concerned about how the winner will leverage the strengths, skills, and abilities of the other candidates. We talk a lot about coming together and collaborating on community goals. Each candidate brings tremendous value to Youngstown, I hope that the elected individual is proactive in reaching out to the other candidates after the race for advice, support, and service. This is what will define true leadership.

Race for Leadership in Youngstown

Now there may be readers of this blog who don't know who I am. I'm Ketuan Baldwin, I'm fighting the battle for Youngstown on the outside. In any war, you will have Soldiers that protect and serve the homeland and you will other soldiers that shipped out to fight the battle. But here are some concrete example of my credentials as it relates to Youngstown.

1. I've served 15+ years as Trustee and Financial Secretary for the organization with the largest (non-government) building investment on the southside of Youngstown in the past 30 years.
2. I've served on the Human Relations Commission for the City of Youngstown.
3. I've served on the Technology Advisory Board for Youngstown City School Tech Prep programs.
4. I've served as President of Arlington Heights Homeowners Association.
5. I currently mentor for the United Way Success after 6 program
6. I've volunteered, advocated, sponsored and been a speaker for many organization (Inspiring Minds, City Kids Care, etc.)
7. I've been Educated in the City of Youngstown (Youngstown State University)
1. Associate and Bachelor degree in Applied Science - Computer Information Systems
2. Masters in Business Administration

I guess I've taken enough of your time now. Please share your thoughts and opinion as well. More than open to any debate that helps make Youngstown a better place.

Stay #Winning my friend…

#OneYoungstown I'm with Tito

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketuan/

Day 4 & 5 - Train the Trainers

The final days of training are here. I have started to learn the best methods to teach this particular group of students (trainers). Everything that they have learned over the past week is starting to come together. Many times in class they would speak French amongst each other. I’m not familiar with the language but I learned to understand some key words by listening to them speak it so often. Especially, technical terms that were being taught during this training. My goal for these final days of training were to help bring together the full picture of what, how and when to use Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies. Some of them set personal goals of becoming Microsoft Certified Solution Experts in Business Intelligence. This would enable them to have expert knowledge of the technology and enable them to be certified trainers as well. Once they gain these new certifications this would enable TPCL to enter a new segment of business and provide growth.

This was a great experience and learning for me as well. I had to quickly learning and understanding some of the newer features since I was certified on an earlier version SQL Server. With my day to day work many of the data tools that I use our internally developed at Microsoft and not released for public or commercial use yet J. Some of the new feature that I learned were around implement a Tabular Data Model in SQL Server Analysis Services and using DAX to enhance a tabular model which is much different from a traditional multidimensional model.

Beyond the technical training and tools, I developed personal relationship we many of the TPCL staff members as well. Some of them even told me that I would fit in great as a Mauritian. I don’t think I would ever give up my United States citizenship but it be great to have second home in the beautiful country.

Day 2 & 3 - Train the Trainers

Continuing on from Day 1, which was an Introduction or Refresher to SQL Querying, we dug deeper into some of the SQL Server specific Business Intelligence technology stack. SSIS, SSRS and SSAS to be exact. 

This was the area of learning the team of trainers at TPLC (The Professional Learning Centre)  were most determined to learn. They gave me a lot of feedback from Day 1 on their learning style and I made adjustments in certain area to speed up and slow down the material. In some ways it felt like a two year old learning how to count because they were so passionate about what they were learning. This team asked so many intriguing questions that in some cases I had homework for myself at the end of the day to take back to my hotel and research.

At the beginning of Day 2, I started the training discussion with the image below. I told them they this may look foreign at this hour, but by the end of the training all the components will come life one session at a time. Many times throughout Days 1 & 2 I would reference back to this image as their learning started to come to together as understanding.

After many discussions and example of the uses of independent BI components of SQL Server: Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services I know there would be many questions to come in the upcoming days of training. The picture below shows one of my students after a day of information overload. You have to love the fact that they are willing to stay late to learn new concepts.

Day 1 - Train the Trainers

Day One of training is finally here. After weeks preparation and days of travel I'm finally here to delivery my services. 

Today, I'm work with a Microsoft Partner - TPLC (The Professional Learning Centre) . TPLC is a Centre of Excellence in Professional Training and IT Certification. TPLC founded in the year 2011, is operating under the aegis of Harel Mallac Technologies Ltd, the leading ICT organization in Mauritius.

The team of trainers that I will be working with at TPLC have years of experience in Infrastructure ( Windows Server, Exchange, Cisco) and Programming (Java, Visual Basic, PHP, JavaScript). I'm coming to help them get up to speed on SQL Server, this is Microsoft's relational database technology. To be more specific this team is very interested in learning about business intelligence. 

Today, I wanted to focus the first day training around SQL Server Querying. This would ensure that the team understood many of the querying concept of T-SQL. T-SQL stands for Transaction-Structured Query Language. The primary programming language used to insert, delete, update data in SQL Server. We spent some time understanding Select Statement, Data Types, Functions. Grouping and Aggregating, Modifying Data and Retrieving data.  

The team seemed to catch on quickly because of there experience in other areas of technology. This enabled us to move through the planned deliverable quickly and move into some of the planned presentation information for Day 2 which introduce us to SQL Server Business Intelligence stack of SSIS (Integration Services), SSAS (Analysis Services) and SSRS (Reporting Services). 

Without any sleep the previous night I thought this could be a issue, but I pushed through and took a great nap after Day 1 of training was complete.

The Road to Mauritius

First things first, this is by far the longest trip that I have ever taken. I have gone to different part of Europe, but I flew from the east coast so it was only 7-8 hour flight. The 14 hour flight to Dubai would have been a lot farther if the Emirate flight crew had taken my advice on how to get to Dubai. The first picture below were my thoughts on the best route to get to Dubai, but there was good lesson learned in geometry today. The second picture shows the actual route. I realized more than ever that the world is round as we traveled through the north pole. I sat between a retired couple, husband on my left and wife on my right. I asked if they wanted to sit next to each other, but their response was the seating arrangement was intentional. I thought it was odd, but I noted it in my mind because maybe this is one of those hidden nuggets for a lasting marriage. They both were extremely nice and I learned a lot from them about traveling.

 


Once I landed in Dubai, I spent the day refreshing and some potential shopping but I didn't buy anything (Lets see if this story changes on the way back home) . The Dubai International Airport is the most impressive airport that I have seen thus far in my life.  After the the 12 hour layover in Dubai it was off to Port Louis, Mauritius.

The seven hour flight from Dubai to Mauritius was great. No, I wasn't in first class but I received a oddly placed seat without a passenger in front of me. Being 6'3" the leg room was priceless. {I was seated in 81-A, see below} On the flight I sat next to a different couple that lived in Mauritius, but worked in France. ***The things you learn while traveling the world.*** Once the flight landed they asked me if I need a ride into the city. Mind you this is a 45 minute ride from the airport, what great hospitality I've seen thus far from the Mauritians. I had a driver waiting for me, but I really appreciated their offer.

Once I got through customs and collected my baggage I went towards the exit looking for a driver holding up a sign with my name. After looking through all the name twice, I realized there was a sign that said "Mr. Lamont." Well thats my middle name for those that don't know and I really don't use that name at all. But I figured it out, now headed to Le Suffren Hotel for some rest and preparation for tomorrows training I'm giving. Stay Tuned!

Preparing to go to Mauritius

Literally three weeks ago, I found out that I was selected to be a part of this experience. I'm head the Port Louis, Mauritius on Saturday May 9th, 2015. I already had plans to travel to Ohio and visit my family. I had tones on projects on my plate at work. I was even involved in planning a massive Leadership Summit, but I could not pass up the opportunity to give back and contribute to a new world. I'm honored to be a part of the  #MySkill4Africa experience

I was thrown into the Lion's Den with a checklist of about 30 tasks I need to complete in the 3 weeks before departure. This included:

• Preparing a training agenda for the Partner that I would with during my time in Mauritius.
• Late Night Skype calls to gather requirements from the organizations I will be working with.
• 6AM Security Briefing
• Managing Travel details and cancelling flights to Ohio (14 hours Flight to Dubai -> 10 hour Layover -> 7 hour Flight to Mauritius)
• Doctors appointments for Vaccines and Medicines
• Researching Country Information
• Gathering Visa Requirement details
• Calling Cell Phone Providers, Banks and Credit Card ---> etc.

Now in less than 48 hours, all the hard work over the last few weeks will come to light. Hopefully I have the energy to execute that Training Program I have prepared for one of Microsoft's partners in Port Louis. Wish me luck and continue to follow the journey!

Career Services????

Most major Universities have a Career Services department. Career Services is established to help students with Resume and Cover Letter assistance, Job Searches, Interviewing skills, etc. This department should be given much more value and resource. What they provide could truly determine the outcome of the post graduate experience regardless of the academic status of students.
I have witnessed this department at work from a middle-tier university (Youngstown State) and from a top-tier institution (Carnegie Mellon). The way each of them operates is totally different. From a outsiders point of view the success of the alumni directly correlate with the operations of the career services groups.
Yes, we know there are dozens of others factors that go into developing a network of strong alumnus. My question today is how can all learning institution give better value to their customers (STUDENTS)??? The answer is maximizing and improvement the career service offerings.
What do you think?

A job within a Job

I am in the business of making people jobs easier. I provide technology related solutions to issue and/or problem that employee and management have at work.

Here is what I did at Emprya

One-Stop
Public Agency Saves $200,000, Serves Job Seekers Better, with Online Solution
Posted: 05/07/2007



The One-Stop of Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbiana Counties in Ohio helped put job seekers in contact with the public agencies and potential employers that could help them—but its assessment process was time-consuming and expensive. So, the organization turned to OneFlow from Microsoft® Certified Partner Empyra®. One-Stop now provides better and faster service to job seekers while cutting costs by more than U.S.$200,000 per year.

Business Needs
If you’re a job seeker in the tri-county area of Mahoning, Columbiana, and Trumbull counties in Ohio, there’s one place for you to stop: the One-Stop. Its all-in-one centers assess the job seeker’s qualifications, connect him or her to potential employers, provide guidance on how to find a job, and make connections to social service agencies that can provide needed assistance. More than 30 partner agencies—which provide assistance for training, housing, family services, and more—participate, as do hundreds of local employers.

One-Stop has been a great success over the seven years it’s operated in Ohio; in the past few years, the number of new customers served has doubled to 4,000 per month. That success created challenges for One-Stop, its affiliated agencies, and its customers. For example, customers had to fill out skills assessments and related forms at each of the partner agencies from which they sought assistance. Because many partner agencies had similar assessment questions, the forms were somewhat redundant.

As the number of completed forms kept in storage swelled, the ability to access and use them to guide job seekers diminished. Staff people couldn’t stay current on all agency services. Paper-based referral forms could be lost or misfiled Separate spreadsheets and databases maintained at each agency created redundant and divergent islands of information, yet another impediment to accessing information.

Neither did the storage of paper-based forms allow One-Stop to analyze and understand the demographics of its customers and employment trends, which One-Stop needed to do in order to fine-tune its services. One-Stop executives recognized the limitation of some of those services, such as a job-orientation session that always had a waiting list because it could be scheduled only twice a week. And they recognized that different procedures at different One-Stop offices led to the inconsistent provision of services.

Solution
To address those challenges, One-Stop turned to the OneFlow solution from Empyra®, a Microsoft® Certified Partner in Youngstown, Ohio. OneFlow is a Web-based solution that automates the organization’s processes and workflow, starting with registration.


"We’re serving our audiences better thanks to OneFlow. We refer them to the appropriate partners with less effort on their part—and ours." Jessica Borza
Chief Operating Officer, One-Stop


A “smart” form gathers information from job seekers. The solution then provides job seekers with information (such as video clips) and referrals to the services for which they’re likely to be eligible, according to the information they’ve provided. The solution also enables job seekers to register for workshops and appointments.

The completed forms, referrals, and scheduled events are stored in a central database. A reporting feature enables One-Stop administrators to analyze the population they serve, trends in customer needs, and the agencies to which job seekers are being referred.

As eligibility rules and business processes change, One-Stop reconfigures the modular OneFlow solution to meet new needs.

Employers and partners use OneFlow as a collaborative online environment. For example, the OneFlow scheduling module gives One-Stop and its affiliated agencies a centralized place from which to reserve conference rooms and other facilities. It also allows One-Stop to centralize registration for workshops—even alerting site managers when a workshop is fully subscribed, so that additional sessions can be added.

Empyra provides the solution in a software-as-a-service subscription model. One-Stop and its various audiences—job seekers, partner agencies, affiliated employers, and board of directors—access separate portals by logging on over the Internet. The solution is hosted at Empyra and features Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database software.

“We considered Oracle and SQL Server for OneFlow,” says Shanthi Subramanyam, Chief Executive Officer at Empyra. “We chose SQL Server because it would provide the scalability and reliability we needed, while being easier and less costly to administer—which meant we could offer OneFlow at a price that’s cost-effective for small agencies. With SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, we provide all the real-time reports that our customers want, without having to rely on a third-party product.”

Benefits
By using OneFlow, One-Stop has eliminated redundant assessment paperwork, which has boosted customer satisfaction and cut the time it takes to connect job seekers with the agencies that can help them, according to Jessica Borza, Chief Operating Officer, One-Stop.

“We’re serving our audiences better thanks to OneFlow,” says Borza. “We refer them to the appropriate partners with less effort on their part—and ours. They go through our workshops and skills assessment, and their information is forwarded to our partners to determine the most appropriate services. They don’t have to go from agency to agency to see if they’re eligible for assistance. We also keep our online processes, such as registration and assessments, updated to reflect changes in eligibility criteria, services, and partners.”

The solution’s reporting capability enables Borza and her colleagues to analyze attendance levels at workshops, so that they can adjust staffing to meet demand.

In the past, One-Stop had no easy and authoritative way to analyze the demographics of its customers, so the organization was forced to make marketing decisions without solid data. With OneFlow and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, One-Stop can determine which audience cohorts to target; as a result, advertising dollars are spent more wisely.

Borza estimates that the solution helps One-Stop save more than U.S.$200,000 per year, about 5 percent of the organization’s total budget. The savings come from a variety of areas, such as scheduling, assessment, data entry, reporting, and supplies (because less paper is used and distributed).

In addition, because staff members are freed from tasks such as scheduling and data entry, their time can be reinvested into providing a higher level of individual service and counseling for job seekers.

People Ask.. "What do you do at work?" Here are the type of things I do currently

Case Study for CRM Marketplace
Presented by: Customer Effective, Inc.
Insurance and Securities Agency Streamlines Processes and Data Integration Using
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software

By: Mike Hauck of Valmark Securities

For 45 years, Akron, Ohio-based ValMark Securities, a leading insurance brokerage agency and securities broker dealer, has provided sales, underwriting and administrative support to its network of over 300 wealth managers and insurance agents. ValMark maintains a targeted member broker and agent network that relies on ValMark’s expertise in preparing investment and insurance packages for high-net worth individuals. These insurance packages are typically valued at three times the national average for insurance sales. In the spring of 2007, ValMark identified the need to update its business processes and began the search for software solutions
that could address its demands to track workflows and manage complex business relationships with multiple insurance companies, financial institutions and investment firms.
Managing complex interactions between partners and its member sales network was one of the core business issues for ValMark Securities. On the insurance side of the business for example, member insurance agents may submit sales opportunities to ValMark for customized recommendations on financial products from a partner database of 35 insurance carriers. Each sales opportunity for these clients is unique. High-net worth clients typically purchase multiple securities and insurance products through the member agent. Product recommendations are based on many client criteria using data obtained during the underwriting process. ValMark needed a system to track each insurance case from the preliminary stages until the final decision
or sale is closed.
Data integration was another important requirement for ValMark Securities in designing a new customer management system. Many insurance products require intensive data gathering during the underwriting process, which can be repetitive and time consuming if data is not easily accessible. ValMark wanted assistance in migrating and sharing client-related data. In addition, the insurance brokerage community recommends that agencies adopt ACORD XML standards for insurance-related data in order to facilitate electronic data interfaces. These feeds include
insurance case status, requirements ordering and status, policy information and commission feeds. The new system would need to support these data standards and requirements in order for ValMark to operate efficiently.
When the company realized it would be difficult to find a system to meet their needs from existing agency management software, they explored the idea of building the software themselves. However, expertise and resources were needed to do so. A few years ago, ValMark Securities contracted with Customer Effective, a value-added reseller and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to replace their initial contact management system with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 1.2. Over time, ValMark realized the need for more customized applications to improve data integration and track activities of its increasingly complex relationships between independent sales agents, brokers and the insurance carriers and investment houses that provide
financial products.
ValMark contacted Customer Effective and together they worked to build a customized agency management system within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. ValMark adopted the solution from Customer Effective known today as Capital Effective, a relationship management solution based on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, designed exclusively for the financial services market. ValMark chose to call their version of Capital Effective “VBOSS” or ValMark Back Office Support System to emphasize that their solution is not “off the shelf” but uniquely
capable of supporting their business model. Employees benefit from the solution’s native integration with the Microsoft Office Outlook, which provides a familiar, easy-to-use interface to access critical information.
To further speed adoption of the CRM solution among ValMark’s employees, Customer
Effective used a unique approach to its implementation for the financial industry, branded as User First Design FormulaTM. This approach begins with a definition phase using input directly from the end users, designing corresponding workflows, and modeling all potential customer interactions. Following the design phase, Customer Effective created a strategic deployment plan to test and train employees at every stage, integrating CRM use as part of their daily routine.

Results: CRM System Expedites Business Procedures
Since implementing the Capital Effective CRM solution, ValMark has improved its client interaction activities and expedited the time involved in integrating data to complete the insurance underwriting process. Accessing the system within the Outlook environment made it easier and more intuitive for employees to use. As a result, the CRM implementation did not entail an extensive training process, and the learning curve was much shorter in comparison to ValMark’s previous agency management system.
Additionally, Capital Effective can be changed quickly based on user needs and ValMark’s everchanging business requirements (such as quickly adapting to industry regulations and standards, like ACORD XML). During the rollout of the new system, ValMark’s users requested that the system be reconfigured to reduce the number of keystrokes necessary to track case information in the system. Within a week, the system was altered to require fewer keystrokes, allowing employees to conduct business through a more convenient process.
ValMark needed a unique solution to solve unique business requirements. For this agency, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform provided the perfect environment to address user needs for data sharing and management needs to speed business process and sales reporting. Additionally, selecting the right implementation partner, Customer Effective, who took the time to evaluate needs from every level in the company, was a key part of their success in finding the right solution.
Mike Hauck currently serves on the management team for ValMark Securities, a leading
insurance brokerage agency and securities broker dealer in the wealth management and
insurance industries.

Youngstown

The new generation of Youngstown youth are here to stay...