Meet the NEJAVI team - Vince Broyles
What makes NEJAVI different?
In the IoT space NEJAVI is different because we only house solutions that are ready to deploy. While we consult for companies working to get to that stage and help them develop their product and go to market strategies, we never oversell a partner to a customer. We are advocates on behalf of our customers. They know that if NEJAVI says the solution is ready to deploy, that it’s best in class and can start working for them immediately. IoT is full of PowerPoints and roadmaps that cost a lot of money and are frustrating to a customer whose main business is not IoT. That customer wants to be creating widgets or writing software, not working through an IoT solution for energy.
Tell us about your professional journey.
In the past 20 years I have worked in the trenches and held leadership positions, in just about every part of a software companies’ lifecycle. I’ve been the number 4 employee in a startup and I’ve also run a team that wrote internal applications and did technical support for 4000 chip engineers. Over the last 5 years I took a detour from the engineering side of tech to work on partnerships and sales. It’s been enlightening to see that side of the business and to now completely understand the classic struggle between selling and engineering. I really thrive on pushing through problems no matter what part of the company I am leading at the time. I don’t believe in “can’t”, only variables on how to get it done.
What do you like most about your role at NEJAVI?
I like being able to promise a customer that we will execute, that we have technology that will benefit them, and that if they have a use case or a problem that we don’t currently solve, we’ll find the best solution for them and deliver it.
How do you deal with the unexpected?
I always keep a mindset that you never know what’s going to happen. I don’t assume that even the most mundane is going to happen correctly. You always have to have several “what if” scenarios in your back pocket. What if the stakeholder quits, what if the budget drops out, what if the solution misses the target once installed and we have to find out why, etc etc. Just never count on things going smoothly and you won’t be surprised when they don’t. If you expect speed bumps, you won’t be surprised when you hit them.
Do you have any favourite books/authors?
My favourite book to pick selections out of and read occasionally is Tools of Titans, by Tim Ferriss. It’s entertaining to hear the comments and see the habits of the very successful.
5 words to describe NEJAVI...
Straightforward, Aggressive, Connected, Exceptional, Nimble
What is your technical background?
Early in my career I worked on RF and Digital hardware for satellite ground stations, NASA launch pad tech and bit synchs, for L-3 Communications. That was a fun job. I switched to software and did work on projects for them, and later moved into the DevOps (it wasn’t called that back then) world. I spent a good time writing code and then eventually leading DevOps efforts globally at Websense. Eventually I led the global R&D networks and the DevOps for Websense and spent about 10 years total there. It was extremely fulfilling and built a broad technical base for me. I ran a tech support operation and a software group that ensured uptime for the main backbone of chip engineers at Qualcomm. The "private cloud" Qualcomm runs for chip design is immense and complex; it was quite a challenge. I’ve designed cloud infrastructure for a start up in the messaging space, and learned the world of VR/AR for a stint at a startup in that arena. It was too early, but amazing technology. Lastly, for the past several years I’ve taken on IoT and blockchain and we’re now creating solutions there.
What trends do you see within IoT?
In buildings, the transition of value in controls from installation and commissioning to software configuration is huge. Customers are becoming aware that they have very powerful software options available to them and that often time controls companies are not optimising their buildings. Customers later pay for this service again to achieve a smart building. Also on the IoT technology cutting edge, data is about to become gold. The ways suppliers and consumers interact to trade on that data is an emerging market just ready to be harvested. It’s going to be exciting.
How would you describe your perfect day?
My little 15 month old sleeps in past 6:30, the family has a nice brunch together at an outdoor restaurant in the sun, maybe I get to hit some golf balls, I get some good news on a big NEJAVI deal, and at the end of the day my teenagers want to hang out and do something together, literally anything will do…..