Here you’ll find select writing samples in many categories—white papers, data sheets, and ebooks; customer reference success stories; company and executive profiles; blog posts; and other materials—that represent the breadth and depth of my experience and the quality of my work.
Anaplan
As a Customer Advocacy Marketer, I help our customers share their success using the Anaplan platform. These stories can take many forms, including videos, short customer success pieces, longer case studies, slides, and blogs. Here are some recent examples:
- At Vodafone, connected sales planning success has other departments calling
- A.T. Cross rewrites its supply chain plan for precision and efficiency
- MUFG Investor Services mitigates risk while improving customer trust and retention
- Kemps savors smoother, richer trade promotions
- ASK Industries connects and fine-tunes sales and finance processes
In Corporate Marketing I ghostwrote bylines and blogs for executives. This relationship is confidential, but I can provide links to pieces on request. Here’s a sampling of pieces written under my own name:
- 6 connected planning concepts from Ron Dimon of Deloitte, a recap of a webinar given by one of Anaplan’s most prominent third-party consultants.
- Join us as we expand our user community in APAC, an announcement of a user group meeting.
- A Big Sur vacation as Anaplan’s guest, the story of a prizewinner from our annual user conference.
- Driving a new age of connected planning, video script for our 2017 user conference.
Symantec CustomerONE
Written while on the CISO’s staff at Symantec, these papers put a new twist on stodgy security case studies. Telling the story of how Symantec guards its own enterprise using its own products, the papers are more like feature stories than white papers; they often feature a protagonist and a story arc, highlighting what we hoped to accomplish, what we did, and what we learned.
- How Always-On SSL Protects Our Website and its Visitors
- Extending Security Operations with Symantec Managed Security Services
- VIP Access Manager, Our Key to Cloud Applications
- Protecting Our Crown Jewels with Data Center Security
Actuate/OpenText
I was an all-purpose producer in the two-person Actuate Content Factory, creating white papers, data sheets, customer stories, blog posts, syndicated content, and more. Some samples:
- Delivering Extreme BIRT iHub Performance, a white paper for Actuate highlighting and explaining software throughput, scalability, and stability
- Serving 40 Million Financial Customers in Minutes with BIRT iHub, a white paper for Actuate documenting a software product’s scalability
- Reporting and Analytics for Federal Applications, a customer-segmented data sheet for Actuate
- Customer Experience: Driving Value from Data, a financial services data sheet for Actuate
- Actuate BIRT Dashboards, an Actuate data sheet on a specific product; produced in one day
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“Using a Three-Pronged Blog/Twitter Strategy to Get More Life Out of Webinars,” a chapter in Social Media Strategies and Tactics, published in 2015 by PR News. (Paywall; contact me to see the chapter.)
Freelance projects (customer stories)
- Fast Finance, a case study in story form for Oracle’s Profit magazine about Brown Brothers Harriman’s migration of its custody accounting software
- Data as Differentiator, a customer success blog post on how Actuate OEM Phototype embeds analytics in graphics quality management software
- Bay Dynamics, a success story describing Symantec triple-threat partner Bay Dynamics: OEM, consultant, and development partner
- Strong Medicine, a narrative success story for Oracle’s Profit magazine showing how Gilead Sciences uses Oracle solutions to simplify business processes and establish a foundation for growth
- Sunwest Milling, a one-page customer success snapshot for Symantec related to regulatory compliance
- Forsythe Solutions Group, success story describing a Symantec partner that helps customers with both the business and technical aspects of IT
- Wakefly, a small-medium business (SMB) success story for Symantec about an online marketing firm
- San Jose Sharks, a one-page Symantec success story about the technology needs of a professional sports franchise
Executive, personal and business profiles
- Go Ahead, Blame Twitter, a profile of social media researcher Grant Kien written for the CSU East Bay’s alumni and community magazine
- Open Doors Policy, a profile of CSU East Bay president Leroy Morishita written for the University’s alumni and community magazine
- Easy to Swallow Business Model, a profile of Blossom Foods founder Sue Graziano Adams for CSU East Bay’s alumni and community magazine
- Outside the Box, a story about Acorn Paper for Oracle’s Profit magazine
- Profiles of Alumni Athletes, a set of articles about Marcus and Lauren McGlory, Lori Stilson-Armstrong, Frank Fudenna, Rich Sherratt, and brothers Don and Mark Sawyer, for CSU East Bay’s alumni and community magazine
Blog posts
- How BI is Like Fried Chicken, a playful yet clear look at how to increase adoption of Business Intelligence (BI), on BI Software Insight
- The Personal Touch at Oracle OpenWorld, an anecdote on my personal blog about technology’s power to connect people of varying backgrounds
- On Unsubscribing, a post in which I reevaluate conventional wisdom about email newsletters
- Mobile BI: 6 Key Ingredients for Success, a piece on BI Software Insight detailing factors that make up a winning mobile business intelligence effort
- What’s the Opposite of Showrooming?, a blog post describing one case where analog-first makes sense
Technology explainers
- Counting on Data Loss Prevention, an article written for Symantec’s CIO Digest magazine, demystifying DLP technology
- Uses and Limitations of Database Benchmarks, one of the first long articles I wrote for Oracle; still a favorite
- Seven Steps to Wireless, an early piece on wireless networking for Cisco’s award-winning iQ magazine
Video
- Father’s Day Tribute, a personal video I wrote, produced and narrated in 2013 in memory of my father