Linda Visnick: Observing the Business World with an Innovative Eye

As industries are migrating to cloud computing, CherryRoad Technologies offers many solutions, products, and services for modern businesses. With the company's expert solutions, individuals can stay connected to their agencies, departments, and first responders. If a company is in the midst of its digital transformation journey, CherryRoad can offer advice on the best path forward, the right strategies, and create a map for your desired outcomes. Leading the innovative teams at this company is Linda Visnick, who has an eye for creating customer-centric solutions that put an end to concerning issues.

Helping Companies Prioritize Performance and Value

CherryRoad Technologies Inc. is a US-based IT services provider specializing in strategic cloud consulting, software modernization, cloud hosting, colocation, network infrastructure, and cloud-managed services. CherryRoad has successfully delivered on-time and on-budget services to over 500 public sector clients for 38 years.

The company has partnerships with Oracle, Infor, and DocuSign and has delivered 2000+ projects including PeopleSoft, E-business Suite, Oracle Cloud, and Colocation engagements to state and local governments, transportation authorities, K12 school districts, and more. It has several offices in North America and Asia with consultants averaging 12+ years of experience.

CherryRoad provides comprehensive technology system implementations, integrations, upgrades, and managed services that maximize performance and value for the customers.  For almost four decades, the company has earned a solid reputation for combining its technological, organizational, functional, and vertical market expertise into practical solutions that deliver results, specifically with public sector clients.  CherryRoad Technology's flexible approach and methodologies enable it to structure engagements that best meet its clients' specific needs.

The company is particularly proud of its high customer retention rate.  When asked why they keep returning, a common thread ran through all of its clients' responses, it all comes down to CherryRoad's people.  The company only employs seasoned professionals who stay focused on its clients' business issues and consistently perform to exceed their expectations.

Putting Experience to Work

Linda Visnick, Director, Education Sector of CherryRoad has 30 years of experience in the business of education and technology.  She has led school districts at the executive level in various roles such as Assistant Superintendent of Business Administration, prior to transitioning to the technology arena as the Executive Director, in a modernization, improvement, and transformation initiative where she implemented ERP solutions to replace legacy systems.  She was asked to transition from the business side of the organization to the technology side of her knowledge of the business and leadership skills to lead such a complex implementation.  With her experience on the business side of the organization, Linda brings a unique perspective to the technology realm that transitions to other public sector entities.  Soon after the success of that implementation, she joined CherryRoad Technologies as Director, Education Sector. In addition to her previous role, Linda has been involved in the ERP implementations of more than 60 education agencies.  She understands the value that cloud applications can bring to streamline business activities, reduce duplication of effort, provide analytics for better decision making, ultimately reducing costs and increasing profits.  Her knowledge of cloud tools has enhanced her role at CherryRoad Technologies to include opportunities to bring communities together through cloud services and solutions.

Collaborating Like a True Leader

Linda had the benefit of building relationships across all the business functions that helped her to move to the technology field.  Even though she had knowledge of the business needs, Linda still had to recognize that she didn't have all the knowledge and experience of others who surrounded her.  Too often, we think we know what is needed without actually listening to our peers.  Linda believes that it is paramount to let go of one's ego and engage in conversation.  "Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand or need to seek a deeper understanding.  Observe the nuances of the room.  What is not being said is just as important as what is being said", she added.  At one point through an ERP implementation, the company was seeking feedback about how they could improve on the products being provided.  There were clients in the room, large and small.  The small clients generally felt intimidated by the larger clients so wouldn't provide input. Having read the room and drawing out conversations from all individuals, a business leader from one of the small clients brought forward an idea. When the team stopped to listen to the idea, they found that they could develop an analytical solution that could benefit other client agencies. Utilizing the cloud, the tool was made available for other clients' editing and data analysis.  Gathering and compiling others' ideas is key to leading.

Defeating Every Challenge Her Way

Linda had the opportunity to move into a leadership role at a relatively young age.  Having that opportunity presented challenges, especially since there were very few women counterparts running the business of a school district. There were groups that socialized outside of the workplace, which naturally lent to friendships and comraderies. Linda felt left out of opportunities as a result. It forced her to step out of her comfort zone and to participate in ways that enabled others to hear her voice. Linda joined organizations that enabled her to meet others throughout the State. She participated in committees that enabled her to provide presentations on the topics where her knowledge could be shared.  She led groups that brought together other colleagues so that people who were new to their role or profession could learn from the veteran staff.  Soon, Linda was being featured in a magazine for the work that she had done. The exposure allowed her to create relationships that were inclusive and, as a result, bring value to a much broader base than if she had stayed narrowly focused on those immediately surrounding her.

Vital Attributes of Every Transformational Leader

Linda believes that leaders need to have the ability to inspire others.  There is so much that is encompassing in that one statement.  She explains that if others are inspired by you, then ultimately you are leading with integrity and honesty.  If you are honest with others, they will be honest with you.  Being strategic is imperative. Hope is not a strategy. Having a penned-out strategy demonstrates thought leadership with an intentional eye and ear to the needs of the community you are supporting.  Having a clear strategic plan that is easily communicated makes for easy support of your vision, ultimately leading to success.  Lastly, having the resilience to overcome challenges is important.  She further adds that throughout your career, you will be faced with adversity at every turn.  You can act as a victim, or you can identify the path that will make you better and more valuable to the organization and client base for which you are serving.

Innovating to Solve Pain Points

CherryRoad Technologies holds 38 years of in-depth expertise in servicing state government entities. It understands the unique issues and challenges public agencies face.  Technology is advancing at a rapid pace, qualified labor resources are more difficult to find and retain, budget pressures grow, and government oversight and regulations continue to increase. These factors, combined with heightened demand for services by constituents, make consistent management and standardized processes a challenge to achieve. The company's Enterprise Solutions team is comprised of experienced professionals from both the business world and the public sector.

Based on its interactions with the clients, including surveys and research papers, CherryRoad Technologies matches an automation solution that caters to this sector's pain point. For example, it launched Digital Town Hall, a virtual meeting solution designed specifically for government meetings with their citizens. Similarly, Digital School Board and Shark UTM were designed with the features needed by K12 school districts. Minority/Women Business Entities (M/WBE) compliance reporting hurdles for state agencies are resolved through Diversity Commitment Management (DCM) Solution and so on and so forth.

Leveraging Technology for Well-being

The adoption of cloud infrastructure is rapidly increasing across public sector environments. The Covid-19 Pandemic acted as an accelerator for the adoption rate of cloud as it forced to trust in cloud technologies at a rapid pace.  Quickly, CherryRoad Technologies clients learned that cloud platforms could be trusted with mission-critical workloads while providing scale and agility that legacy infrastructure couldn't match. At a time when citizen stakeholders were demanding solutions that were accessible from hand-held devices, at any time, from anywhere, Cloud became the enabling technology that ensured secure access, high availability, and social safety. The company has seen statistics that say 81 percent of companies with 1,000 employees or more already have a multi-cloud strategy. That number will rise to more than 90 percent by 2024.

The Road to the Future

The team believes that CherryRoad is very well positioned to maintain its leadership position in modernizing and transforming legacy environments. They have already seen its clients begin to shift from a focus on modernization to a focus on optimization.  That's really all about understanding how work happens in an agency model and the optimal workflows that deliver efficiency.  So, it's not just about the technology, it is also about process, change management, workforce management, and more. Having supported public sector clients for more than 38 years, the company possesses all of this industry domain knowledge and expertise that its clients can lean into and increase their speed to value. Said differently, the company can really help its clients realize the 'promise' of digital technologies.

Advice for Budding Women Leaders

"Don't let roadblocks hinder you from growing as a leader", said Linda. Roadblocks open up opportunities for a different path.  Finding your own path will enable new relationships that will broaden your knowledge and understanding.  New relationships and broadening your knowledge may send you on a path of change.  "At worst, you've gained new understanding and relationships.  At best, you have created a successful path to propel you into the future", she concludes.