I just returned from a couple of days in Las Vegas, supporting the efforts of Syncsort reseller partner Zumasys and their user conference, the aptly named Zumapalooza. The Zumapalooza event brought a few hundred Zumasys customers into the Red Rock Casino for a couple of days of increasing their technical and business knowledge as well as having some good fun. It was at this conference that Syncsort received the proud distinction from Zumasys of ‘Vendor of the Year.’
I spoke to a room of IT folks about disaster recovery methods, but that’s not what I want to say today. I want to talk about Zumasys and what a unique company it is. They really have things figured out. President and Co-Founder Paul Giobbi has a deep focus on people first, and the result is a hugely successful company that really knows how to combine work and life in a sensible, healthy way. Let me give you just one example.
Each quarter, Zumasys pays for one of its employees to take a vacation. There’s two requirements: they go somewhere outside of the United States (to seek out new worlds and new civilizations) and when they return they give a presentation about their trip to fellow employees. You might call this a “shared growth” strategy. At Zumapalooza, we were treated to one of these presentations, and I do mean treated! System Engineer Jin Kim gave a fascinating and hilarious slide show about his recent trip to Peru, including visits to Machu Picchu and a list of fun and…. Ummmm…. Interesting things he ate while there. The less said about that the better! (Let’s just say his “Top Five” list of things eaten included live termites!)
Zumasys was recently recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Orange County, and I’m not the least surprised. If you’re looking for a new gig, definitely put Zumasys on your short list. Their people really do make the difference.