Technical Sales and Marketing

Stephany J. Head, Ph.D.
Director, Strategic Planning
Electronic Data Systems

By Garland L. Thompson

Stephany J. Head, Ph.D., joined EDS in 1997 and immediately started moving mountains in the company's sales and marketing programs. That's saying something for a company that invented the information technology services industry more than 35 years ago and considers itself the world leader in nimble responses to the rapidly changing IT scene.

Dr. Head, a behavioral sciences graduate of National-Louis University and M.B.A. from William and Mary, took her doctorate in strategic business planning from the University of Maryland. She took courses to learn to handle SAP enterprise resource planning software, and it stood her in good stead when she became EDS' director of strategic planning in June of 2000.

One of the first things she did was to create an external market-view strategy manual in a compressed four-week time frame, redirecting the efforts of multiple outside vendors and internal resources to create a leading-edge strategy methodology to provide updated information to top managers on a 24-hour, seven-day basis.

Next, Dr. Head created from scratch a robust Intranet portal to house the external market-view strategy manual and host, as well, thousands of other items of data, providing EDS' leadership with timely access to mission-critical information. According to her superiors, the "design, structure and hot-link up-date methodology rivals some of the best sites on the market. EDS Corporate is looking toward the site as a benchmark for potential upgrades to eds.com."

Dr. Head also established a first-time-ever, indirect channel management and virtual community across EDS Federal, affecting alliances and strategic partnership contract relationships beyond her division to the corporation-wide level. In recognition, she has been asked to share her expertise with corporate officers to share due diligence and best-in-class frameworks.
Dr. Head has been named one of the top innovators in EDS. Over her four years at EDS Federal, she has supported the capture of more than $1 billion worth of outsourcing business within the commercial sector. She is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Maryland University College Graduate School and of Columbia Union College. 

In the words of Laura Floyd, senior vice president for marketing, strategy and communications, "Dr. Head is an excellent example of a professional that successfully combines technical expertise with marketing skills within a senior leadership position. She not only understands the importance of combining these skills for the generation of revenue, but also for the creation and transfer of ideas within" the corporation.

Garland L. Thompson is assistant managing editor of The Philadelphia Tribune and a member of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Selection Panel. He can be reached at GThompson@ccgmag.com.