Data-Driven Work Cultures: Marcio Silveira Of e-Core On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Companies seeking to truly gain an edge by leveraging data must also utilize an information technology service management (ITSM) platform for customer interfacing activities and analyze interactions data to identify pain points and opportunities to improve efficiency. E-core is recognized by Atlassian — one of the world’s most prestigious software companies — as a Specialized Partner for ITSM, and we have immense experience implementing integrated ITSM solutions.
As part of our series about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marcio Silveira.
Marcio Silveira is the Co-founder and CEO at e-Core, an information technology consulting firm headquartered in Brazil with offices in New York and Mexico. e-Core is one of the technology industry’s most trusted partners for helping customers around the globe unlock the value of tech investments.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Starting from a young age, I’ve always been driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. At age 13, I entered the business world in Brazil helping my mother sell Cuia (traditional cups for Brazil’s beloved Chimarrão Yerba Mate drink), dishware, and nutritional diet shakes. Working side by side with my mother taught me some key lessons about developing lasting relationships by understanding customer’s perspectives and being responsive to their needs. These lessons would stick with me throughout my career. At age 18, I started my first company, Colors, an express printing business. At a time when printers were less commonly accessible, my company served as the ‘go-to’ for business cards, logos, folders and menus for local merchants, retailers and restaurants, providing my first real exposure to running a tech-focused B2B business. At age 21, I landed a dream job, as a contractor to the international company Hewlett Packard, where I learned to train companies to become fluent in the latest software technologies. After rising through the ranks, I was inspired to launch e-Core with a couple of like-minded colleagues who were also interested in helping clients unlock the value of tech investments and creating a people-centric work culture that challenges its employees and provides opportunities for growth. We began as a three-person software training company, and in 23 years, we’ve evolved into a multinational tech leader with more than 650 highly trained professionals supporting 270 customers in countries spanning Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
While I’ve had plenty of missteps along the way that I’ve learned from, maybe the funniest memory from starting out dates back to when I was accompanying my mother on a sales meeting with a “big-fish” client. We had to wait two hours before being ushered into a fancy office, and as I took my seat, I noticed the chair was missing a leg. I didn’t let it distract me or interfere with my mother’s pitch. When she finished, her client said from behind his desk that he would buy from us not only because he was interested in our products, but because I hadn’t complained about being seated in a three-legged chair! That lesson taught me when you’re faced with obstacles in business — no matter how small or large — it’s crucial to remain focused and resilient.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl chronicles one prisoner’s devastating experiences in a concentration camp during World War II who, despite his heartbreaking circumstances, manages to develop a unique brand of psychotherapy based upon purpose and positivity. While his perspectives reflect an extreme form of hardship, we all face adversity in life and in business, and the book’s lessons can be meaningfully applied in many capacities. It is also regarded as one of the most influential works of the last century.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
The power of education can unlock so many doors, especially in disadvantaged and underserved communities. At e-Core, we’ve heavily invested in our STEM programs and established impactful activities that have supported more than 5,000 students gain STEM-focused education. This is particularly impactful because the technology industry pays more than 2.7x Brazil’s average national income. It’s a game changer for that individual student that can make lasting positive change for generations, and ultimately improve the society at-large. At e-Core, we’ve hired some of these impressive students in full-time positions, donated to scholarship funds, and we regularly encourage our employees to volunteer as mentors so that they can give back to the community and teach their expertise in tech to the next generation of industry pros. Personally, I also play the role of Chairman of the Board at a leading international school in Brazil, an opportunity for me to help our community to inspire new generations of global, life-long learners.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly it means to be data-driven? On a practical level, what does it look like to use data to make decisions?
At e-Core, we strive to ensure data is used in every capacity to drive decision-making. In selecting and unlocking the value of software to set your business up for success, data is an essential diagnostic tool equivalent to an X-Ray before surgery. It provides invaluable insights that are key to understanding why things are happening at every level of your business from sales to marketing, to talent acquisition and employee engagement. Data can be analyzed, tweaked and ultimately leveraged to reduce costs, speed turnaround times and improve overall customer satisfaction. Immersive data that powers artificial intelligence also helps businesses get an edge on competition by developing sophisticated algorithms to anticipate needs and automate key processes that generate individualized experiences for each customer.
Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?
Companies that have significant employee counts and large customer bases generate the most abundant data. Any sector from banking and finance to healthcare and insurance, higher education, retail and e-commerce can most benefit from tools that power data collaboration.
We’d love to hear about your experiences using data to drive decisions. In your experience, how has data analytics and data collaboration helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
Leveraging data is one of the single most powerful tools for diagnosing pain points in any large-scale business, and can play a key role in reducing costs, improving operations and generating new sales.
Has the shift towards becoming more data-driven been challenging for some teams or organizations from your vantage point? What are the challenges? How can organizations solve these challenges?
Of course, every company wants to do things better and faster than they are currently able to. But companies on the precipice of accelerating their growth through data and technology must wade into it with a high-level of curiosity and flexibility in order to truly harness its power. Executing on experiments based upon assumptions in the data often takes time and trial and error before innovations can stimulate ironclad benefits to your business.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Effectively Leverage Data to Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.
To effectively leverage data, companies must modernize applications and migrate to a unified cloud platform such as Google Cloud Computing or Amazon AWS that supports advanced data analysis, search, and business intelligence capabilities. Cloud application migration and modernization are important enabling factors in any digital transformation and have been essential components of business innovation over the last decade. As a Google Cloud Specialization Partner in Application Development — the highest technical designation a partner can reach — we have a demonstrated track record of consistently driving our clients toward success.
One example stems from our work with Matterhorn — a long-time client involved in the multibillion-dollar merger and acquisitions market — in developing a proprietary database and search engine to deliver the deal-changing information Matterhorn’s clients depend on. Rich in legal and financial expertise, but not IT, Matterhorn hired e-Core in 2011 to build the digital tech behind its product idea. The e-Core/Matterhorn partnership continues to this, nearly a dozen years after starting on this venture. e-Core provided backend, frontend and UX designs, automated the deployment process, and created a robust and lightning quick database storing pertinent credit and loan documents for all U.S.-based borrower transactions. The e-Core tool provides hundreds of valuable data points for each transaction, supporting Matterhorn clients in discovering nuanced market trends while deep diving into rich data sources for every unique deal.
Companies seeking to truly gain an edge by leveraging data must also utilize an information technology service management (ITSM) platform for customer interfacing activities and analyze interactions data to identify pain points and opportunities to improve efficiency. E-core is recognized by Atlassian — one of the world’s most prestigious software companies — as a Specialized Partner for ITSM, and we have immense experience implementing integrated ITSM solutions.
In one heart-racing client example, we had to decommission a client’s antiquated ITSM tool in less than 40 days, without impacting internal and external customers. Under budget and on schedule, we developed an impressive ITSM tool involving Incident, Problem and Change Management flows and processes, and by taking advantage of Automation for Jira, we were able to streamline several processes and schedule automated ticket creation for recurrent outlines and activities. This had a significant impact on our client’s operations and performance, and enabled them to take operations to the next level with ease and confidence.
Companies that can integrate spreadsheets and planning data from different tools into a centralized business intelligence platform also have an enormous leg up. These types of leading-edge capabilities allow C-Suite executives to better analyze operations, control costs, integrate new technologies and scale operations. At e-Core, we practice what we preach to clients and we’ve leveraged integration between HubSpot CRM, an ERP system, Google Spreadsheets, Atlassian, and Jira, and integrated those with Tableau dashboards and reports across all key areas of the organization for improved data visibility to inform and guide all of our most critical decisions.
The name of this series is “Data-Driven Work Cultures”. Changing a culture is hard. What would you suggest is needed to change a work culture to become more Data Driven?
Data driven digital transformations can be challenging for any company from the mid-level to enterprise size. People are naturally comfortable doing things the way they’ve always been done and can be resistant to change. This type of hesitancy is common but can be a time-consuming obstacle for the organization. As business leaders, we must set the stage for success and instill in our colleagues the values of being nimble, avoiding complacency and steering clear of barriers that can jeopardize our companies’ vitality and future growth.
The future of work has recently become very fluid. Based on your experience, how do you think the needs for data will evolve and change over the next five years?
Amid unprecedented turbulence provoked by the pandemic, forward-thinking business leaders must take stock of the quickly evolving workforce trends and create a sustainable hybrid model of remote and in-person work. As the environment around us changes more and more, our ability to adapt will be put to the test. To protect our values and our culture, as well as to maintain high levels of performance and trust among coworkers, e-Core established five fundamental principles to guide our company into the future of work.
Hybrid and adaptable
Adopting hybrid work models means having the flexibility to adapt to remote or in-person work based on the context and needs of each team.
Strong culture everywhere
No matter where our team members are, we believe that employees and customers need to live and breathe our culture. We rely on good management practices, genuine values, procedures, and cutting-edge tools to build a strong culture everywhere.
Equal opportunities for everyone
We understand that working remotely or in person doesn’t make anyone better or in a position to deliver more. We have the mindset and the culture to promote fair treatment at work. Here, opportunities will not be restricted to those who work in our offices.
Work-life balance
We are a team that seeks to find a balance between professional and personal life, maintaining high levels of productivity.
Asynchronous communication
It’s true that communication is becoming increasingly asynchronous in remote work environments. Although it comes with greater flexibility, fewer interruptions, and higher productivity, we realize there are potential difficulties and take care to minimize them.
Does your organization have any exciting goals for the near future? What challenges will you need to tackle to reach them? How do you think data analytics can best help you to achieve these goals?
e-Core has established a path of 40% year over year growth, and we’re building on that progress by acquiring new data-focused businesses, including some in the U.S. We’re utilizing advanced data technology to help us identify possible businesses that will be instrumental to expanding e-Core’s global reach, and we’ll form collaborative, integrated businesses with those we admire and we choose to partner with.
How can our readers further follow your work?
Stay up to date with e-Core’s latest updates, news and insights by following us on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/e-core/
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Data-Driven Work Cultures: Marcio Silveira Of e-Core On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
