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Technology News You Can UseNovember 2008 – Issue XLIIn This Newsletter
Comments from the EditorsThis month's issue is chock full of informative and interesting articles. Thanks go out to our contributors for taking the time to share their knowledge. If you would like more information about any of these topics, please feel free to contact either of us or the authors themselves. In addition, any chamber member may submit a value added article. Brent Daugherty and Matt Reedy Finding the Best IT Talent: Internal vs. External Recruiting Marci Parrish, TechniSource, A Division of Spherion
We all know how challenging it can be for an organization to recruit and retain the best IT talent for their team. IT professionals are in constant demand, creating a very competitive labor market for the best and the brightest workers. This race for the best IT talent has a number of organizations once again questioning a basic strategic question in HR circles: are we best-served to use internal resources for recruiting new workers, or to outsource our recruiting function to an external agency with expertise in the IT space? If your organization is one of the many who are currently conducting this analysis. If so, here are some considerations to examine: Timetable:
How important is it to you that qualified candidates are identified quickly? Staffing firms with expertise in the IT niche will likely have large applicant pools ready, so good external recruiters will usually be able to provide you with some candidates much faster than your internal recruiting team. A related factor, though, is how your own business processes will affect the hiring timetable. If you are prone to recurring budget challenges that rear their ugly heads during a search for a new employee, or if the harsh realities of your organization are that schedule conflicts among managers slow down the interview process for weeks, the use of internal recruiters may allow you to better manage the starting and stopping of recruiting. Organizational Culture: When it comes to portraying how it feels to work for your organization, internal recruiters will obviously be in a much better position to relay nuances about the company’s work environment to candidates. This can be a great way to communicate the day-to-day culture of the organization and make sure that candidates are comfortable with how things work on the inside. On the other hand, external recruiters often come across as more credible sources of information about organizational culture. First of all, they have a wider breadth of exposure to multiple work environments and can provide a comparative assessment of your organization in a way that internal recruiters cannot. Second, as an “outside” voice, external recruiters can often be more persuasive with candidates about why our culture would be a good fit for them. Candidate Quality:
Recruiters, both inside an organization and in IT staffing firms, have access to the same systems and technologies to assist them with the initial culling of applicants. There are important differences, however, in the screening process that will ultimately lead to the identification of high-quality candidates for your open positions. Internal recruiters typically have general guidelines for the type of candidates they’re expected to identify, and a basic process they need to follow to produce the candidates. But for the most part, they have very few incentives and penalties for the quality of the candidates they recruit to the organization. By contrast, most external recruiters have their compensation either entirely or partially linked to the quality of the new-hire that you are able to obtain through their assistance. This creates a very clear environment in which external recruiters must deliver high-quality, viable candidates for every open position they are retained to fill. The transparency of the process makes it easy to evaluate how effective an external recruiter has been in qualifying top-notch candidates for your company. Budget:
Finally, it’s important to consider the relative cost structures with internal versus external recruiting. An easy starting place is by looking at your annual new hire levels; if you don’t need to hire a lot of people each year, it will always be more cost-effective to adopt an external recruiting model. And regardless of your volume, external recruiters can be more attractive for your HR budget when you consider the “hidden” costs of internal recruiting, such as creating a Careers site on the Internet, procuring contact information for high-quality IT candidates, and implementing other technology systems to screen candidates. However, using external recruiters can be expensive if you are a small company and do a large number of new-hires per year. In these situations, it might be prudent to invest in some sort of recruitment technology, as well as a good team of on-site recruiters. They really understand your business objectives and the kinds of IT professionals needed to help you get to where you want to go. Regardless of whether you choose an internal or external recruiting strategy -- or if you decide to use both types, the bottom line is that you need to efficiently find great candidates that fit your organizational culture and you need to find them in the most cost-effective, efficient manner possible. Never lose sight of the end game. Did you know? Little Known Stuff about Microsoft Office 2007 Ricci Fitzpatrick, Fintan Technologies, LLCAs we go about our work, we hear numerous complaints about the new look of Office 2007 because “Now I can’t find anything”. However, did you know that Microsoft has online tools that show where to find things in Office 2007 based on where they were in Office 2003? You can find them at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx#1 . There is a wealth of information about all the Microsoft Office products at the Microsoft Office Online site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX102855291033.aspx. These and other pages can be found at www.microsoft.com by searching on “Office Online”.
So now, when you hear yourself or your co-workers utter, “I can’t find it anymore,” now you’ll now you know exactly where it is!
TV Revolution, Roland Hoffman, Phoenix Conseho GroupTV (R)evolution You'd have to be hiding under a rock if you don’t know about the analog TV shut-off scheduled for Feb 19, 2009. This is what Mayor Bill Saffo of However, other unprecedented technology advances are fueling the TV evolution much more silently. TV has been evolving from a single distribution model (over the air) to an ever-increasing number of distribution platforms, such as cable, satellite, Internet and mobile. Many companies considered themselves distributors of programming for TV stations as an example. Now most are shifting from content distribution to content creation. Hence, the industry is spending billions of dollars every year on technology to bring more video content to more people over more mediums. Here are some current game changers: Traditional Over-The-Air TV: In addition to the switch from analog to digital broadcasting, most TV stations focus on their news departments for content-creation. They are investing heavily to upgrade sometimes decades-old infrastructure to High Definition (HD). HD news requires new cameras, switching and processing equipment in the studio and in the field. Not widely publicized, is a nationwide deal that Sprint Nextel is funding to accelerate certain aspects of this transition. Sprint Nextel has committed $4.8 billion to vacate the RF spectrum that broadcasters currently use for newsgathering. As part of this FCC-backed project, TV stations are replacing analog with digital RF systems, which is an important step to allow HD on location. How will the switch to digital affect home viewers? Mostly not at all. If you receive your TV signal over cable or satellite, you wont even know the switch to digital happened, because your service provider will make the necessary technology changes at their head end. Any TV that uses rabbit ears will need a special set-top box. Multi-Channel TV: Most viewers (70%-80%) subscribe to cable or satellite for TV. One of the most recent technological evolutions in TV distribution has come from phone companies. Verizon and AT&T, in addition to a myriad of small TV companies, have been aggressively building their so-called IPTV infrastructure. The concept is to deliver TV over Internet Protocol. Only a few years ago this was unthinkable. Network speeds were not high enough for TV, much less HDTV, and the equipment to compress and process video signals was not powerful enough. How has this changed the TV landscape? While none of the home technology changes, except for the set-top box, it means increased competition. In many places, cable companies had a local TV monopoly and phone companies had a local phone monopoly. This is now changing. Internet TV: While we initially didn’t consider youtube.com and similar sites to be TV, they have become an important outlet for programming. Not only do they include user-generated content (UGC) that ranges from mundane to clever, but they also are becoming a way for large content owners, such as networks and studios, to reach their audience. For example, Fox and NBC recently launched hulu.com to offer their shows on-demand after their on-air date. If you missed an episode of The Simpsons, no problem. Watch it on the Internet the following day. Mobile TV: Mobile distribution is quite possibly the most difficult delivery platform for traditional content providers. Screen sizes are very small and viewing time is normally very short. For example, text on a standard TV would be too small to read on cell phones. A news-set that looks good on a LCD or plasma unit would be too large for a mobile newscast. A number of companies have sprung up in recent years whose sole business is to produce mobisodes. These are series with 2 to 3 minute episodes tailored specifically to the smallest screen. The industry is currently deploying a number of competing technology standards for delivery to mobile devices. Additionally, new technologies will emerge within the next 5 years to leverage higher frequencies and bigger bandwidth. WiMax being one such possibility. COD: Across all of these distribution platforms, a new phenomenon is changing the game for those who traditionally have funded free TV or subsidized affordable subscriptions: advertisers. Content On Demand (COD), enabled by Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), Video-On-Demand (VOD), Slingbox and podcasting, allows viewers to watch TV when they want, not when the station or network schedules it. In many cases, viewers can also bypass advertising. Since TV advertising is such a huge business, some powerful money people are pushing creative and technology minds to collaborate and invent new advertising technologies. Many venture-capital backed start-ups fall into either one of two categories: distribution on demand and advertising technologies to monetize this new distribution model. Need a Job? Use a CAR Bruce Howard, University of Texas at San Antonio“Holy cow! This economy stinks! And now I’m bored and tired of my job and don’t know what to do! I wish I could find something more interesting, more challenging, but right now I guess I’d better just sit tight and be glad to have employment.” Does this sound like you? Yes, the jobless rate in the
The most important consideration for your career improvement is to maintain awareness of how your skill set fits into what employers need for a specific position. In other words, how do you match up with what they want in a candidate? Here is a great exercise for you to execute as a “check up” on your career path. Take a job description you find interesting, from an employer's web site, a job board, etc. and sit down and match your resume against its outline. You think to yourself, “Yes, I can do this!” “This job is perfect for me.” But you need something to help sell yourself, something to prove in an objective way to the employer that you have the skills required to do the job. This is where you need to use your CAR. Your CAR will get you where you want to go. Your CAR will be the power to drive you into a new opportunity. Your CAR will help you sell yourself to land that new job. Your CAR is an acronym for: Circumstance Action Result If you can discuss a “Circumstance” (i.e. a situation that happened at work that resulted in an “Action” that had a favorable “Result”), then you have a great vehicle to maintain and expand your career program. But sometimes your CAR needs to be tuned up to be kept in tip top condition. Here’s how to keep your CAR running smoothly! * Keep a diary of accomplishments It takes just a few minutes to write down your daily successes in a small diary or notebook Jot down a note about what you did and the result. It will help when the day comes to tune up your CAR if you have these quick reminders. * Ask peers and friends, “What do I do best and why?” See what your friends say about your work skills and attitudes and have them define your strengths. Sometimes it is hard to identify the good things about ourselves, yet others have a more objective view, so capitalize on their perspective. * Look for opportunities to be involved with measurable projects. Do not pass up that opportunity to run the bake sale! Ok, so you may not want to make cookies, but if you have the chance to lead a project at work or in a volunteer capacity, embrace that situation and make it a fantastic success. This will help show how you are versatile with your strengths and can apply your skills to other areas of interest. * Maintain awareness of trends in skills sets for your career path Keep current with your skills. You might have been the world’s expert on DOS but waiting for it to come back is a waste of time. Instead, make sure to attend conferences, seminars, workshops and other venues. This will build your skill set for the future and give you the chance to advance and expand your network. Invest your time and resources wisely in your CAR and it will be ready to go when you need it most. Remember to cherish your CAR as it is a reliable and trustworthy asset for you. You can use your CAR even today if you wish to move. It will take you to great places and you will be ready to go find new career roads for yourself. In Pursuit of Government Gold, Jay Fraser, Tracer Detection Technology Corp.It has been a long held truth that even when the government is the ultimate end-user of a technology, the government is often the worst part of the system to actually select the ideal technology to address its requirements. That is why the government holds free and open competitions for its technology development money in the forms of Small Business Innovation Research (S.B.I.R.) grants, Small Business Technology Transfer (S.T.T.R.) grants, and other, more inclusive Broad Agency Announcements (B.A.A.). Read on to learn how your organization might perhaps find “Government Gold.” This all-inclusive process starts with each of the federal agencies and with their individual working groups. In many states, the process is similar with the agencies, like environmental protection, law enforcement or energy/utilities, providing a list of topics of interest. These working groups, understanding the strategic technology needs of their agencies. They define a range of topics to which myriad companies of all sizes and varieties submit a series of proposals. While the various forms of technology development and the range of agencies employ slightly different variations on the theme, common elements of the technology selection process are: free and open competition, submission of a stepped approach of proposals, peer group evaluations, and then finally selection by the end-user. Let’s look at how one of the more sensitive agencies, the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Organization, previously known as the Technology Support Working Group, describes the process. According to a recent BAA from CTTSO (actually BAA-09-Q-4500), the “Approach” is as follows: “A three-phased proposal selection process will be used for this solicitation to minimize cost and effort for prospective offerors. Phase 1 will consist of the solicitation, receipt, and evaluation of a one-page Quad Chart. Phase 2 will consist of the solicitation, receipt, and evaluation of a White Paper (not to exceed 12 pages) and applies to only those submissions that have been accepted in Phase 1. Phase 3 will consist of the solicitation, receipt, and evaluation of a Full Proposal (not to exceed 50 pages) and applies to only those submissions that have been accepted in Phase 2. Based on the priority of critical requirements and the availability of funding, Phase 1 submissions can be selected for Phase 3 (Full Proposal) without a Phase 2 submission. Clarifications to White Papers and Full Proposals can be requested where a full submission or resubmission is not required.” Through this process, as it was recently explained to me by a former senior Pentagon official who had been involved in the TSWG technology deployment effort, all technology developers, large and small, can compete on an equal footing thereby minimizing the cost of proposals until scientific and technical peer groups have vetted each successive step of the submissions. The first stage, the submission of a Quad Chart is the fastest turnaround phase. In the case of this particular BAA that was published on Is it “worth the trip?” The answer to that question unfortunately is, “it depends.” Assuming your company is able to comb the S.B.I.R. or S.T.T.R. announcements as they are published and you find a topic that fits what you think your company can do, there is still no guarantee that going through the process will lead to the “government gold.” In many cases, topics are pre-determined by agency program managers based on their known requirements, and frankly, often with a specific contractor in mind. However, because of “fairness,” a public announcement is required. Sometimes the effort to secure federal funding through “Congressional ads” is as efficient as working to try and identify a program manager (PM) within an agency and then trying to convince that PM that a topic should be written to conform with your company’s technological skills or desires. Through the efforts of a Capitol Hill representative (a former Congressman), my company was introduced to a senior staffer on the House Armed Services Committee. In turn, he queried his end-user community for interest in the program we had presented. A month after that, our first meeting with the sponsoring agency of the Department of Defense was held. Two proposals, and approximately two years later, we were alerted that the funding for our program had been committed. Six months after that, work began on our program that is now culminating with the issuance of our Final Report, and leading to a “transitional program” to enable the end-user community to field test the capability. We are also now writing proposals to the agencies described in this article. For anyone who is interested, the Defense Department just pre-released its SBIR 2009.1 solicitation, http://www.dodsbir.net/solicitation with topics from seven DoD components. If you want to subscribe to the Listserv you should send an email to mailto:sbirlist@listserv.dodsbir.net?subject=SUBSCRIBE. It’s a long and often frustrating path. The upside is that any funds you receive are equity free. Contact UsTechnology Chair: Chuck Weisbrich Co-Editors: Matt Reedy, Matt Reedy & Assoc and Brent Daugherty, Time Warner Cable North Chamber Contact: Debby Zucker
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