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Marcy Chanin got into con- sulting by accident. She was originally planning to go to medical school but
ended up studying abroad, and found
herself graduated from college and
needing a job. That led her to become
a coordinator for a training delivery
organization, which led to becoming
a training consultant for SAP imple-
mentations. “Over time I realized that
the training side of things was nice,
but it was all kind of on the back-end,
after everything had already been
done on a project,” she says. “So then
I became a Siebel consultant working
with more hands-on projects. And
from there, well, the rest is history:
Siebel led to Salesforce and Sales-
force led to Simplus.”
Today, Chanin is a delivery lead-
er at Simplus where she is account-
able for ensuring delivery suc-
cess and operational effectiveness.
When it comes to consulting, Cha-
nin says she most enjoys the people.
“There’s just so much camaraderie
and great collaboration to consult-
ing projects. You get to engage with
so many different people and dif-
ferent teams,” she says. “I also love
that there are always new challeng-
es with consulting. Every customer
and every project presents some-
thing new to conquer.”
Her greatest professional achieve-
ment, thus far, is getting to see the
people she’s mentored succeed, she
says. “I’ve watched people since
they were fresh out of school, start-
ing their careers, and I’ve given
them guidance and advice and from
there watch them take off and be-
come leaders in their own right. It’s
really humbling.”
Simplus was recently acquired by
Infosys, and, as part of it, the firm will
be doing something really unique: a
reverse integration. “For me, this is
really exciting because it feels like I
have an opportunity to take some of
the lessons learned from the Cloud
Sherpas/Accenture acquisition I was
a part of and ensure success here,”
Chanin says. “I’m looking forward
to lending my experience and ex-
pertise to the reverse integration in
order to make sure that consultants
from both companies—Simplus and
Infosys—are happy and successful.”
And as far as being recognizedas a women leaders in technology,Chanin says it’s a great testamentto how women can succeed in theindustry, even though there is stillquite a gap for women in the technology space. “There’s a disadvantage from the get-go for womengoing into tech because there aren’tmany women to look up to in thefield,” she says. “Acknowledgingwomen leaders in this way helpscreate role models and mentors forthe younger generations.”
MARCY CHANIN
SIMPLUSEXCELLENCE INLEADERSHIP
Have you experienced challenges being a woman consultant in the technology field?
CHANIN: “As a woman manager in the technology consulting space, one of the biggest hurdles I repeatedly have to face is managing men who—for whatever reason—seem to believe I don’t know enough to be respected. Managing male directreports who dismiss me before I have even had a chance to show my value to themis really challenging. As an experienced consultant and manager of people, I havethe knowledge and the methodology to advise them, make sure they’re focusingon the right things, and ultimately make them successful. But getting them to seeit that way isn’t always easy. The best solution I’ve found for this is just asking forsupport and continuing the dialogue. I don’t write them off, but instead, I continue toshow my value to them and reach out to other people who have worked with thoseindividuals to ask about the best way to engage with them.”
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&A
