Dilemma: IT Staffing Solution- Staff Augmentation (part I)

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“We interviewed for six months for this position, and then gave this guy six months to prove himself, but he just hasn’t worked out.” a frustrated client explained to me just last week. “Now the head of that team has given her notice, and will be gone in two weeks! It’s just extremely frustrating” she went on to say.

Unfortunately this type of problem is a regular occurrence for small to medium sized businesses trying to build and/or keep their IT staffs intact, happy, and motivated. This recession, which many IT managers had hoped would provide a much needed reprieve from the incredible challenge of finding the right IT talent, has brought little relief. It is just as difficult to recruit and keep exceptional IT talent as it has ever been. There is a solution however, that I have seen work well for many companies willing to think outside the box a bit. I refer to it as “staff augmentation, basically bringing in outside personnel to augment your current staff from time to time”.

You see, there are many solid IT integration companies that have talented IT engineers with a wealth of knowledge of a variety of networking solutions. These are very expensive people to keep on staff. For integrators, keeping these engineers busy on billable projects is crucial to their profitability. Utilizing this talent in staff augmentation roles on a regular basis has many advantages. The first and most obvious is that such an engagement is usually billed by the hour, making the engineer’s billable hours 100% percentage billable100%. The second is that it can provide a degree of stability for the engineer who can report to the same site, with the same hours, for a specific period of time. That can be a welcome break for an engineer who has been all over the map juggling a variety of projects. It also allows the engineer to form much tighter working relationships with key staff at a valuable client. From the integration company’s perspective it can be a real win.

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IT Careers: Job, Revenue Growth Eyed by Some IT Firms

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Sixty percent of IT firms expect to see revenues in the second half of 2010 exceed those in the first half, and 37 percent expect to increase hiring, a CompTIA survey says.

About one in six IT companies expect revenues in the second half of 2010 to come in higher than in the first six months of the year, according to a report released July 8 by CompTIA.

According to CompTIA’s IT Industry Business Confidence Index, 60 percent of tech firms surveyed expect third- and fourth-quarter revenues to be significantly or moderately better than those in the first and second quarters.

This despite what CompTIA termed “the slow and unsteady economic recovery” following the worldwide recession of last year.

“IT industry executives remain relatively confident about the tech sector and about their firm’s prospects, but concern over the health of the U.S. economy persists,” Tim Herbert, vice president of research at CompTIA, said in a statement. “In some ways the results point to a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ mentality, where positive news and momentum are followed by unexpected bad news and a renewed sense of negativity about economic conditions.”

There also seems to be some positive movement on the job front, which has been a key weakness of the overall economic recovery. According to CompTIA, 37 percent of IT companies in its survey expect to ramp up their hiring in the next six months.

Of the other firms, 47 percent said that while they are fully staffed, they’d like to add workers to help grow their businesses. The other 53 percent said they are understaffed by 5 to 20 percent.

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Why there should be no such thing as an IT project

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IT is not an island: CIOs reveal the secrets to successful business projects…

By Mark Samuels (Cross Posted from silicon.com)

ANALYSIS

How is it that pure IT projects seem destined to fail, and yet technology is clearly key to business? Mark Samuels canvasses a group CIOs for their views on what barriers there are to IT project success.

“IT projects never really work,” says Mike Day, CIO at fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. That seems like negative talk from a technology chief but there is sound method in the apparent madness.

More technology chiefs are waking up to the need for IT projects to be sponsored by the business. In cost-constrained times, CIOs are trying to avoid driving into a technology cul-de-sac. So rather than simply implementing IT projects, many CIOs are aiming to understand what executives need from the outset and meet agreed outcomes.

“The best ideas are sponsored by the business,” says Day. “Technology is now so pervasive through the organisation; it’s end-to-end. The CIO has to communicate to the business what is possible and why.”

Such communication has to rely on agreed business objectives. IT and other line-of-business executives need to collaborate and work back towards technology implementation from an end goal that is well defined.

Take Day, who was searching with his executives for a means to help a dispersed workforce of global designers collaborate in real-time. The answer was videoconferencing, with the firm having recently signed a five-year managed services contract with BT to provide high-specification Tandberg technology.

The system meets the stipulated business demand, using virtual fitting rooms to allow employees from various business units around the globe to work together without the need for travel. “You have to understand the problem that the business is trying to solve,” says Day, who reports to the designer clothes brand’s chief operating officer.

“Success is about trying to identify what people want through a particular initiative. I’m able to talk in a language the business understands. CIOs have to rely on a strong network for outside peer review.”

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Job Tips – What Does the Ideal IT Resume Look Like?

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Cross Posted from CIO Magazine

Everyone has an opinion on what information an IT resume should include and how it should be formatted. Please share yours.

Last week I interviewed Shana Westerman, a recruiting manager with IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies, for an article on IT resumes. She has a fresh perspective on how to write an IT resume based on her experience matching IT professionals for contract and permanent positions with her IT line manager and IT executive clients.

Westerman’s thoughts on how to write an IT resume are informed by her need to know as much about a candidate as possible before presenting the candidate to a client. They’re also informed by her clients’ needs for detailed documentation on prospective employees. 

I found Westerman’s underlying message (be careful who you take resume advice from; make sure it’s tailored to IT jobs because not all resume writing advice is) refreshing, thought-provoking and sensible. But I knew some readers would consider her recommendation to write long, detailed resumes heresy, and indeed it stirred controversy (see the comments readers left.)

Who knew IT resumes could inspire as much debate and vitriol as President Barack Obama’s citizenship or Sarah Palin’s viability as a presidential candidate? Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on what an IT resume should look like, and often those opinions contradict each other.

For example, some professional resume writers and recruiters say the resume shouldn’t be more than two pages while others (including Westerman) say a three or four page resume is fine, especially for a high-level IT executive with several decades of experience. Some job search experts and career counselors recommend including fancy graphics, images or charts to make one’s resume stand out. Others say fancy formatting is unimpressive and irrelevant. 

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We Know IT and We Only Do IT Recruiting

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We Know IT and We Only Do IT Recruiting

If you need to fill a qualified professional Dallas IT Position or if you’re an Dallas IT Professional looking to upgrade, doesn’t it just make sense to work with a company that actually has the background and expert, insider, knowledge of the IT Industry in the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex?

After over 10 years as a Dallas IT professional, Mike Hanes, president of ProVisionTech Group started the company after experiencing, first hand, just how big name and general recruiting firms were doing their clients a disservice.

He wasn’t going to play the “number’s game” that is all too common in the industry.

Instead he founded a company that is dedicated to providing the best possible match for both the organization and the candidate.

Based on over 10 years experience as a Dallas IT professional, project lead and holding an MBA in E-Business, he developed a pre-screening process that ensures Dallas-Fort Worth IT departments & organizations and Dallas-Fort Worth IT candidates find the right match, faster and with a lot less headaches.

When you work with us, you’ll find the right person or position faster than you ever imagined.

We Guarantee it!

“Mike is very knowledgeable about all facets of the technology sector. His depth of experience combined with his high integrity and true caring for his clients make him the right man to recruit the people you need to make your IT project a success. Whether you are one of his individual contractors or a corporate IT department contracting services from him, you will be highly satisfied with the results.”

Kevin Brockhoff, former ProVisionTech IT Consultant

“Mike Hanes and I share core values of integrity and Christian service. From our first meeting Mike impressed me with his ability to leverage those values as an asset in his business. Mike was instrumental in helping us find someone to fill our open IT position. ProVisionTech worked with us to determine our specific needs and then provided several candidates who met those requirements. We would definitely feel comfortable doing business with ProVisionTech again, should the need arise.”

Bill Herlin, Director, IT Strategy & Governance

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Mike Hanes
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Job Search Tips – Leveraging Technology for your Job Search – Vol 1

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Reposted from CareerAlley


 "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." – Carl Sagan

Most (if not all) job searches must leverage technology to be successful these days. Even the "low tech" methods require that you have a resume in Word, pdf or some other electronic version. But to be honest, successful job search requires technology these days. I’ve written a number of posts on this topic, but the technology changes and improves so often these days, it doesn’t hurt to provide updates from time to time. Even CareerAlley is now "mobile ready" if you view it on your smartphone (or Blackberry) browser (take a look). Too much to cover in one article, so consider this volume 1 for now. So what’s changed, new or not covered before?

Podcasts: Most of you are aware of podcasts and many of you watch (or listen) to podcasts in some way, shape or form. There are free podcasts you can leverage in your job search:

  • Secrets of the Job Hunt – Great topics (the link to the left will take you to the podcast in iTunes) complement the Secrets of the Job Hunt website. Depending on the topic, which range from job search strategies to advice for recent grads, each podcast runs 2 to 25 minutes or so. You can listen to these while sitting in front of your computer (a few are video podcasts) or while using your iPod, this is a great way to get valuable information to help in your job hunt. By the way, did I mention that these are free?
  • JobDig – Another podcast for job search, the link to the left will take you to the podcast in iTunes (JobDig offers other formats as well from their podcast page at JobDig Podcasts). These podcasts (also free) range from 4 to 10 minutes or so and complement the JobDig.com website. Topics range from job advice to job search tips. Also worth a listen.
  • The Savvy Jobseeker – One more for you (and yes, the link to the left takes you to the podcast in iTunes), The Savvy Jobseeker (website = savvyjobseeker.com) also provides free podcasts with topics that range from "Tips to landing a high-paying job" to "How to choose job references". Each of the podcasts range from 14 to 30 minutes or so.

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Are you wasting your IT Application Support budget?

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Are you wasting your IT Application Support budget?

The concept of Lean is based on eliminating waste from a process. Application Maintenance and Support is one of the largest IT costs for an enterprise. Waste from a large project can have significant short-term impacts. Waste in the Application Support area can far exceed project waste because of the long-term nature of support.

What is Application Maintenance and Support? If you are typical, you have Application Maintenance and Support teams consisting of a fixed number of resources deployed to provide following types of services:

1. Resolution of Incidents and Problems

2. Consultation Services – Answer questions about the operation of the system and provide planning services to customer

3. Scheduled services such as planned enhancements to add capabilities or provide custom one-time access to information

Do you have the right number of people assigned to the support team? How well do you handle spikes in support requirements? Are the support services beneficial or are they simply “busy work” to occupy a fixed team of resources? Are the supported applications providing value to the business?

Most of support activities are short in duration and require detailed knowledge of the system or time-consuming analysis and research. In order to avoid the time-consuming analysis, support teams are typically staffed with knowledgeable experts. It takes so long for a person to learn the application, organizations resist transferring staff which limits staffing flexibility, adds costs, and increases waste.

Support teams are staffed to handle spikes in problems that may occur during peak periods. A spike in enhancement requests may lead to a growing backlog because of the difficulty in orienting staff. A lull in priority work may leave the team under-utilized.

Most support teams encounter the following challenges:

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IT Job Tips – Your Success as a IT Project Manager Lies in your Willingness to Make Decisions

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Having the guts to go out and make decisions will enhance your career.

Back in December of last year I wrote how “Decision Making is Essential to Good Project Management.” I found that there are many articles already written on how to go about making decisions. One of the best of have read was pointed out in Preetham Nadig’s response to my blog last December. You can read that article, “The case for behavioral strategy” on the McKenzie Quarterly web site. Throughout my career I have been frustrated by slow decision making on my projects. Today I would like to elaborate more on the authority of project managers to make decisions.

Many experts on leadership point out that the worst decision is the decision not to make a decision. You can find this phrased in many different ways but the meaning is the same. What many people don’t realize is that avoiding a decision is a decision in itself. The ramifications of avoiding or delaying a decision must be analyzed against actually making a decision. In my previous blog I emphasized some of the problems that can occur if decisions are not made in a timely manner.

The lack of a decision can be quite detrimental to any project. To be successful, projects must continuously make forward progress. Since the project manager’s performance is measured by the success of their project(s) it is of utmost importance that project managers ensure that decisions are made effectively.

There are two categories of decisions that I will define here. The first is a decision that is out of the project manager’s control and the second is a decision that is within the project manager’s control. Yes, there is a lot of gray area in between and being able to decipher who has the authority to make decisions is not easy.

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IT Resumes: Think Twice About the Advice You’ve Been Given

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A recruiting manager with an IT staffing firm warns IT professionals to use the resume advice they get from the local employment office, outplacement firms and professional resume writers at their own risk.

CIO — Recruiters, professional resume writers and other career experts give out tons of advice on how best to write a resume that will stand out from the competition. Their intentions are noble—they want to help people land jobs—but the problem with their advice is that it doesn’t always apply to IT professionals and the nature of the work they do, says Shana Westerman, a recruiting manager with IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies.

“People go to the unemployment office or they go to outplacement resume writers who don’t give advice that is applicable to the IT field,” she says.

Westerman notes that IT resumes are different from resumes for professionals in other fields because IT workers have to capture a range of skills—both technical and functional—on their resumes. Because technology changes so rapidly and because so much IT work is project-based and involves “so many moving parts,” generic resume writing advice can do a great disservice to IT professionals, says Westerman.

Westerman sees first-hand how generic resume writing tips play out on IT professionals’ resumes. She screens, on average, 300 resumes per day searching for IT workers to place with her clients, who are IT line managers and executives at large and midsize companies looking for contract and permanent employees. Westerman says many of the IT resumes she gets from job seekers are too short on specifics for her and her clients’ needs. When she finds a candidate whom she thinks would be a good match for a client, she says she often has to ask the candidate to beef up his resume with more information about his skills and experience.

“You’re not going to meet with a [hiring] manager if your resume doesn’t get you the meeting. Your resume is the one and only tool that gets you an interview,” says Westerman.

She adds that even when she advocates for a particular candidate, the client still wants to see on the candidate’s resume all of the capabilities she’s mentioned. “If they don’t see what I say on the candidate’s resume, their interest will wane,” Westerman notes.

Here, she shares the generic resume advice IT professionals should run from.

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Job Tips – Social Networking Ever More Critical to Job Search Success

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Job seekers with robust LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles have better access to job opportunities at growing companies than candidates whose job searches don’t include active social networking profiles, according to the results of a new survey.

CIO — Jobvite, a maker of recruiting software, released the results of its third-annual social recruiting survey this morning, and the findings underscore the many reasons job seekers need to incorporate online social networking into their job searches.

Jobvite asked 825 HR and recruiting professionals about the extent to which they use social networking websites in their recruiting process to find and vet candidates for jobs. Their answers indicate that they view social networks as a viable channel for sourcing high-quality candidates and that they plan to increase their use of social networking websites in their recruiting efforts this year. (Only about 3 percent of survey respondents were Jobvite customers.)

At some companies, in fact, social recruiting is beginning to eclipse traditional channels for sourcing candidates, such as job boards and third-party recruiters and search firms.

If you’re looking for a job and not active on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter (the three social networking websites most popular with employers, according to the survey), here are four reasons to join these sites and actively manage your profiles.

Read more here

Regards,

Mike Hanes
ProVisionTech

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