Procise Proud: Meet our team

Employee Spotlight: Connie Wiegel – From HR to IT Innovator

At Procise, we’re fortunate to have team members with diverse backgrounds. Connie Wiegel’s career journey is a perfect example of how passion and adaptability can lead to an unexpected and rewarding career path.

What led you to pursue a career in tech/IT?

I have a business degree in Human Resources with a focus on Training and Development. This led me to a job teaching computer software. I loved teaching and completely geeked out on technology, venturing into databases and development. This opened opportunities in IT.

Tell us about your career and education journey. What brought you to work at Procise?

Short answer: Jim Burns and my amazing colleagues. After leaving full-time training, I eventually worked at another consulting company. I had been doing well as a self-employed consultant, but I was getting bored sitting around writing code all day. When I heard through a friend that this consulting company needed contract trainers, I thought it would be fun to get back into that at least some of the time. There, I eventually moved out of the Training Division and into the Software Development Division that Jim Burns managed. This proved to be one of the best things that could have happened. At this time, SharePoint was brand new. Another consultant, Greg Moser – who became my friend and mentor – was dabbling in it and trying to figure out if it was really going to be a thing. Well, it was, and suddenly there was a lot of work. Jim and Greg asked me if I wanted to work with it, and it changed the course of my career. Eventually, Microsoft 365 came along and grew to be the huge product that it is today.

Back to Procise. Jim eventually started Procise Solutions and formed his “dream team.” I am so grateful that I get to be a part of this team.

What tools or platforms do you use the most?

Microsoft 365. I find that the collaboration, app, and automation tools in M365 fit perfectly with my skills and experience. I love working directly with business users to understand their day-to-day challenges and find solutions that really work for them. The adaptability of the MS tools and the integration within the tools themselves as well as other systems is the great part about M365. The tricky part is M365 is so big, and there are often multiple ways to do things, so it’s hard for people to know the best way to fit all the pieces together in a way that works for them.

That’s where we come in – helping customers get the most out of M365 so that it supports the way they work and isn’t just one more software system that makes their jobs harder.

The bonus for me in all of this is that I get to continue my passion for teaching since helping organizations adopt these tools is so much about knowledge transfer and mentoring.

 What is your favorite type of project to work on?

At Procise, we work with all size companies, and we pride ourselves on meeting our customers where they’re at and then helping them to grow in their skillset. That said, my favorite thing is working on projects that involve one or more of my colleagues. I work with smart people, and I’m always so proud to see them in action working with our customers. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been doing this work; I always learn something from the people I’m working with – that includes both my colleagues and my customers.

What are your passions or hobbies outside of work?

I love to learn. I’m constantly going down some rabbit hole about something – watching YouTube videos, reading books and articles, etc. Right now, I’m really into vegan recipes, which is odd since I’m not vegan. But I want to eat more vegetables, and vegans know how to make vegetables delicious!

I also love to read fiction – typically action/adventure or mystery. I hate romance novels and I’m not really into war stories, but I’ll read almost anything else. I’ve read everything Louis L’Amour (westerns) has ever written!

I have a dog and a cat. They were raised together, and they act like brothers. My dog Quinn is a yellow lab. Usually, labs are crazy, but he’s the mellowest boy. I make homemade real food for him and making sure he gets enough exercise helps me to do the same. Loki is my cat. He is whip-smart and fearless (guess who is in charge in our house!). My main mission with him is keeping his mind stimulated, or he wreaks havoc!

What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I used to be very shy. In my late teens/early 20s, I decided I didn’t want to be that way anymore, so I made myself do things that scared me. Sometimes it would be small things like talking to someone I didn’t know at a party or bigger things like getting involved in theater. Everything I did that scared me, but I did it anyway, helped to boost my confidence, and then it builds upon itself.

What’s your favorite animal?

The cat dog. It’s the cat that acts like a dog. I have one of those. I guess you could also say that I have a dog cat – a dog that acts like a (scaredy) cat. He’s my favorite too!