From the mouth of babes comes this question.  My youngest daughter, age five, asks, "Dad, what do you do for work?"  Knowing that I'm in competition with other parents who are Doctor's, Fireman, Policeman, Moms, Veterinarians, Teachers and so on I feel compelled to tell a really good story.  I'm sure many of you can relate to this seemingly innocent, yet complex question.

Take 1:

Troy:       "Well, I work for a company that helps other company's be more safe, efficient and effective.  We're in the IT Management and Business Continuity markets as well as customer communications.  We take events and incidents and get them to the people that need them, anywhere in the world.  It's a complex technology, but simple application, of event processing, infomation transformation, mobile workflow and we deliver tangible results."

Brooklyn: "Huh, what is a Tangerine Result?"

Take 2:

Troy:       "Well I work for a company that has lots of clients, all over the world.  And we help our clients build relevance engines that deliver information when people need it.  And that information is super important and people can be quicker and more effective then before.  They really like it and it helps them stop bad things from happening."

Brooklyn: "Huh, bad things like veggies?"

Take 3:

Troy:       *Sigh*  "Well darling, we have 1,000 clients.  Those clients have lots of moms and dads that work for them.  So, we help moms and dads have more time at home with their kids because they don't get bothered by stuff.  And we help keep those moms and dads safe.  So you could say that we help mom's and dad's have more time with their kids, we help keep them safe and we help their companies be better so they can hire more moms and dads. We care about our clients because what matters to them, matters to us. Oh and we have an "app for that" like Angry Birds...(pure desperation at this point...)"

Brooklyn:  "Hmm.  That sounds pretty cool dad.  But I think I'll have mom come talk in my class."

Ouch.  Probably a good call.  Well I'm just proud to officially welcome our 1,000th client to the (x)matters family.  We are shamelessly proud of our joint accomplishments, we have achieved much with the moms and dads at our clients.  Thank you for making us better!  We also are very aware that the only reason we are here is because you think we should be. 

We are still having fun, helping you do what matters for your customers. 

Troy McAlpin