The Spring Runoff and Cisco’s VALUE Framework

Every November as days shorten and temperatures drop, the ice begins to form on the lower sections of the famed Gallatin River in southwest Montana.  Anglers take a pause from throwing fall streamer patterns and chasing the elusive Brown Trout.  They move to casting smaller nymph and emerger patterns, as the trout begin to hunker down.

At this same time of year Cisco and our Partners are gearing up to capture year-end budgets with targeted sales and promotional campaigns.  Sales blitzes abound as many of our partners drive to close out their fiscal years in a strong fashion.  The holidays fly by with celebrations, and January is filled with kickoff’s and the promise of the new year.  By late January, many of our customers are flush with their new technology and capabilities.  Much of which was sold under the promise of new business outcomes and agility.  This is where Cisco’s V.A.L.U.E. Framework can help!  Our collective challenge is that many times we fail to have an agreed upon strategy that starts with simple Validation, together with our customer, on a common use case.

By February thick sheets of ice have formed on the lower Gallatin and the water level has dropped.  While the days are beginning to get longer, there is still only a few productive hours on the river each day where the water warms just enough to nudge some trout to feed.  It’s these critical windows of opportunity that need to be seized if one wants to transform themselves into a true winter fisherman and capture success in the ice and snow!

Likewise, technology adoption and the realization of value has a short window of opportunity, post deployment.  If this is done in haphazard fashion, poor user experience can result in the biasing of users against the new offerings.  This is a dangerous time, especially with ill perceived plans.  Awareness of adoption barriers and Learning to overcome them are critical during these short winter windows.

By late March the thaw has begun.  While this signals the onset of spring, it’s often a hazardous time to be on the river with ice dams and flooding frequent. New hatches are tantalizing the trout, and they are working hard not to get swept downriver in the early torrents of spring.  The well-equipped angler utilizes all his resources to stay safe by paying close attention to flow reports, and prepares for the upcoming hatches by ensuring an adequate inventory of blue-winged olive and salmon fly patterns.

Planning and preparedness are essential in overcoming adoption barriers and critical to furthering the customer adoption process.  Identifying Utilization metrics, and ensuring agreed upon processes are created to collect and normalize Customer KPI’s are an important step in gaining buy-in.  This is again where Cisco’s V.A.L.U.E. Framework helps guide Cisco and our partners through these critical steps to ensure a process for joint realization.

Finally, by late April the Spring Runoff is in full swing.  The deep Yellowstone snowpack has been cut in half, and the lower Gallatin has yet again rerouted its channels providing opportunities for anglers and trout alike!  It’s this final stage of the annual transformation where the ice rejoins the flow of the river to set up the summer fishing season.  The melding of technology into business process flows are also the finale stage of realizing VALUE.  Embedding our technology signals success and sets up additional opportunities and renewals.  Get educated on the V.A.L.U.E. Framework and prepare for the Spring Runoff!

Tight lines and good selling!