Go Beyond The Connection

About Go Beyond The Connection

Go Beyond the Connection is a show for business leaders, IT pros, and anyone obsessed with how connectivity shapes the modern enterprise. Listen and explores what happens beyond the internet connection—where technology, resilience, and real-world business needs intersect. In each episode, we speak with industry experts, innovators, and practitioners who are pushing the boundaries of cloud connectivity, network performance, and digital infrastructure. From hybrid work to SD-WAN, from customer experience to business continuity, we dig into the strategies that power today’s most connected organizations. Whether you’re leading IT transformation, navigating the challenges of multi-site networking, or simply want to stay sharp on emerging tech, Go Beyond the Connection delivers actionable insights in a human, engaging format. It’s not just about the tech—it’s about the people and stories behind it. Tune in, subscribe, and discover how to future-proof your business one conversation at a time.

Publisher

Bigleaf Networks

Category

business · business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Mar 2025

Latest episode

10 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

42 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Jun 2026

   The Digital Jobsite Series: From Reactive Networks to Predictive Advantage | Juliano Giannerini, Baker Construction

   Most IT teams are proud when they reach a proactive posture. Juliano Giannerini says that is not the finish line. In this episode, the Director of Information and Systems Security at Baker Construction explains what it actually takes to move from reactive firefighting to a predictive IT operation -- and why the difference is not just operational, but strategic. Giannerini brings more than two decades of experience across highly regulated oil and gas environments and the high-growth, low-margin world of commercial construction. At Baker Construction, a privately owned firm operating across more than 25 states with nearly 10,000 employees and over 900 active job sites, he has led the IT function through a full maturity transformation: consolidating internet service providers, reducing annual mobility costs by $300,000, and projecting $1.3 million in savings over three years. His approach centers on one principle -- that IT leaders who understand the business and build genuine relationships across the organization earn a fundamentally different kind of influence than those who do not. KEY LEARNINGS Why the reactive-to-proactive-to-predictive framework is the right way to measure IT maturity -- and what predictive actually requires How to reframe IT from a support function to a business technologist mindset that earns a seat at the table Why relationship-building is not a soft skill but the core competency of effective IT leadership How to make invisible IT work visible -- and why consistent application experience is the outcome worth translating into financial terms The hidden cost of point solutions and fragmented vendor decisions -- and how holistic architecture saves money at scale Why shadow IT and shadow AI are growing risks, and what a real governance response looks like What moving from a regulated industry to a low-margin construction business taught one IT leader about efficiency as survival "Our ultimate goal is to be predictive. I want to be ahead. Being proactive is one thing. Being predictive means I am way ahead of events or things that might happen." -- Juliano Giannerini, Director of Information and Systems Security, Baker Construction

2. 

   13 May 2026

   The CIO's New Mandate as Institutional Intelligence Architect

   Most CIOs are still fighting to be seen as more than a support function. Erich Gazaui, Chief Information Officer at Papa, has a different frame entirely. For him, the role is not about keeping systems running. It is about architecting how information moves through an organization, who has access to it, whether it can be trusted, and how it ultimately shapes the decisions a business makes. In this episode of Go Beyond the Connection, Erich explains why systems without proper information governance are often worse than no system at all. He describes how spreadsheet-based workflows quietly age into stale assumptions that drive flawed decisions, and why having a person in a seat specifically designed to advocate for information access is what shifts the CIO from service provider to strategic mandate. He also gets into the practical side of CIO value creation: how company-wide procurement visibility gives him levers to pull on cost and adoption, why he speaks fluent finance to earn trust with CFOs, and how his team approaches AI readiness and governance in a healthcare environment where safety and regulation are non-negotiable. "Having a person in a role designed to ensure access to the information, while advocating for it and supporting self-service, can change and ultimately drive a cultural shift. It becomes a mandate that we need to have this role, we need to have this thought process at the table so that, woven together, the outcome is ideally better." -- Erich Gazaui, Chief Information Officer, Papa Listen now and hear how the CIO mandate is being redefined, one institution at a time. Takeaways: The role of the CIO has evolved significantly, shifting from mere support to strategic partnership, emphasizing the importance of information architecture in business decision-making. Understanding the nuances of different departments is crucial for a CIO; it fosters internal alignment and enhances the overall efficiency of the organization. AI's integration into business processes is a hot topic, and companies must be ready to adapt while maintaining a focus on security and governance. Building strong relationships across departments can transform the perception of IT from a service function to a vital partner in achieving business goals. CIOs must be fluent in the languages of finance and technology to effectively bridge gaps between departments and drive successful outcomes. A proactive approach to innovation, balanced with necessary governance, can significantly enhance a company's ability to leverage new technologies effectively.

3. 

   29 Apr 2026

   Why Most AI Deployments Fail (And How to Fix the Sequence) | Go Beyond the Connection with ChaChi Gallo

   ChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology at Michels Corporation, joins host Steve MacDonald to explain what it actually takes to build a digital job site -- and why most organizations get the sequence wrong. Michels is a Wisconsin-based infrastructure contractor building the foundational systems that power modern construction: fiber networks, energy infrastructure, and some of the largest data center projects underway in the country. ChaChi leads IT strategy across an environment that is distributed, unpredictable, and operationally demanding in ways that most enterprise IT frameworks were never designed to handle. In this conversation, ChaChi makes the case that AI readiness is a construction project, not a software rollout. Before tools can deliver value, organizations need trusted data, governed processes, and connectivity that works in real job site conditions -- not ideal ones. He traces the 60 to 70 percent failure rate on AI deployments directly to sequencing: the data foundation comes last, not first, and everything built on top of it reflects that instability. He also shares a practical lesson from visiting an AWS distribution center that reframed his team's assumptions about 5G, explains why satellite connectivity changed operations for Michels in ways that cellular never could, and draws a clear line between the kind of automation that belongs on a job site today and the kind that does not yet belong there at all. His closing thought is the one that stays with you: technology is easy. It is the people who are hard. Topics covered include building a data foundation for AI, why AI deployments fail, satellite connectivity for remote construction sites, autonomous networks and human oversight, wireless strategy for field operations, and IT leadership in relationship-driven industries. AI deployments fail when the data foundation is built last, not first Satellite connectivity is a genuine operational breakthrough for remote construction sites 5G is a tertiary backup in even the most sophisticated distribution environments -- not a Wi-Fi replacement Autonomous equipment belongs where conditions are controlled; human oversight is required everywhere else Technology is easy -- relationships and operational presence determine whether digital initiatives succeed "Just like you have to get a permit to do construction work, you have to go through cyber and risk to make sure that this product is okay for us to use. We have to do the same checks and balances that we do for our customers." - ChaChi Gallo, Vice President of Information Technology, Michels Corporation Companies mentioned in this episode: Michaels Corporation Milwaukee PC Generac Google Oracle OpenAI Caterpillar Komatsu AWS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThc0C7zdMw

Who has been a guest on Go Beyond The Connection

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Tim Newton
• Bjørn Jensen
• Julian Jacquez
• Dave Idle
• Claus Torp Jensen

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

59

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32