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Technology News You Can UseSeptember 2008 – Issue XXXIXIn This Newsletter
Letter from the Editor, Paul O'Bannon, Grande CommunicationWe have another stellar collection of articles for your reading enjoyment. We hope you find these of interest and value to your business. Remember, any North Chamber member may submit an article. If you are interested, contact Debby - dzucker@northsachamber.com - to learn more.
Scanning Your Professional Barcode: How to Figure Out what you’re Worth in This Job Market Marci Parrish, TechniSource, A Division of SpherionWhile many things are clearly priced in today’s world—groceries, real estate, automobiles—your worth to a company isn’t quite as easy to pin down. The combination of your current salary and benefits total what your employer feels you are worth to the company today. But how do you know if it’s equitable to other technology professionals with your skill and experience level? What if you’re interested in finding out your salary range on the open market or investigating the compensation packages you could earn outside your current workplace? While salary surveying today does not require an intricate algorithm, it does take time and a multifaceted approach. Beginning with the versatility of technology and extending to local employment market experts, the tools and information are readily available to IT professionals interested in finding out the value of their skills in today’s job market.
Know Your Level The Internet is a tremendous resource for job and salary information. Begin by using job boards to gain a solid understanding of how your position is identified in the marketplace. In today’s world of creative titles and individualism, it can be hard to know exactly how your professional level is categorized from workplace to workplace. Search the postings for job titles that match your qualifications. Carefully analyze the job descriptions to ensure that your skills and experience line up with what the employer is seeking. Do this with numerous postings on major job boards—Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Job.com, etc.—as well as job sites specific to the IT industry, such as Dice.com or JustTechJobs.com. You’ll also want to visit the Web site career sections of companies you admire or where you might consider applying. Review their job postings and analyze where your skill and experience levels fall within their hierarchy of titles.
Calculate the Going Compensation Once you know what titles and professional grades to research, use online salary calculators to find out what workers are earning in your field and region. Free salary calculators can be found online at Salary.com, SalaryExpert.com, Monster.com and numerous other career sites. Test several calculators to ensure you are getting a well-rounded average. Remember, pay ranges will vary by region based on population, industry and demand. Make sure you are building your current salary range based on the region where you plan to work.
Consult Colleagues & Peers IT associations and professional organizations can also be a valuable resource for gathering general salary information. Talk with industry peers and seasoned professionals to gather their salary insights based on skills and experience levels. Networking within an association can also be a good method for gauging how compensation packages compare among various IT employers.
Go to the Experts Another effective method for substantiating your salary range is to talk to local and national hiring authorities: recruitment firms. By speaking with recruiters and headhunters, you can gather a local market expert opinion on what your skills and experience can command in terms of salary. Ensure that you talk with headhunters and recruiters who specialize in the IT industry and have strong knowledge of the marketplace and the kind of employers you are targeting.
Test the Market After you have done background research on the Internet and in the marketplace, the most concrete way to find out your earnings potential is to get out into the employment market and talk to potential employers. Apply for jobs and test the market by going through the interviewing and salary negotiation process. For IT professionals who are unemployed, in transition or eager to move on from existing jobs, this is the most practical next step in ascertaining a precise compensation range. For professionals looking to stay with an existing employer and advance within the ranks, applying outside the organization carries risks. If existing managers learn of your job exploration efforts, they may question your eagerness to grow within the company. Before beginning an outside job application process, employees interested in staying with their current employer should explore internal advancement opportunities and talk with managers about compensation issues. If your Internet and market-based salary research are showing you could earn more outside, take the opportunity to have a professional, frank discussion with your manager. You may gain important insight about the company’s compensation practices or may find that you are interested in considering outside job opportunities. Either way, you have gathered valuable salary information needed to make smart career decisions.
Increasing Professional Net Value Once the dollar signs are clear and a salary range confirmed, many workers want to know how to increase their compensation prospects. What steps can you take to command more in the job market and to turn the heads of top employers? The key to increasing professional value is to know what employers need and ensure the skills you have can grow as industries, technologies and the marketplace evolve. Imagine if the postal service refused to progress with time and technology? How many people would be using the Pony Express today? The same grow-or-go mentality is vital for employees. Professionals must either stay on top of the learning curve, developing and fine-tuning the skills employers demand, or settle for lower pay and fewer opportunities for advancement. In the technology field, professionals understand the importance of keeping pace with the skills evolution. Nevertheless, determining which new tools and skills are required learning in an industry where technologies and methodologies can change by the day is often an overwhelming task. Many IT workers find that professional associations (for example a software developers association or local community of network security professionals) provide critical insight into which skills employers are looking for and what new training is vital to career growth and advancement. On-the-job experience is another excellent way to develop and hone new workplace skills. Look for opportunities to diversify your own skill set by taking on tasks that are outside your job description. Join special project teams and ask to be part of strategic initiatives in order to increase your experience and visibility in the workplace. The more skills, job experience and workplace expertise you can gather, the more valuable you become to employers, both current and prospective.
Know Your Goals & Your Limits While success is not defined by salary alone, it is one of the fundamental reasons why people work: to earn money to support their lives and families. Your job satisfaction is intrinsically tied to being able to earn fair compensation for the hours you log and the work you produce. Prior to approaching any job opportunity, take time to analyze your salary range and set reasonable standards for the income you want and the income you will accept. It’s how you’ll know when to negotiate, where to draw the line and how to find an employer that recognizes your true professional value.
Is Voice over IP (VoIP) For Me? Matt Reedy, Armida TechnologiesAs more and more businesses become aware of the potential benefits of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service, questions are being raised about its quality, reliability and security. It is widely acknowledged that VoIP systems can cost much less than standard POTS (plain old telephone system) lines for small and large businesses alike. In addition to piggybacking on your existing Internet connection, VoIP technology enables new features (such as receiving voice mail messages as attachments in your email) that can truly improve productivity. The number of users of the two most widely-recognized VoIP services, Skype (www.skype.com) and Vonage (www.vonage.com), demonstrates that high quality VoIP calls can be made at lower costs and with reasonable reliability. There are more than 1,500 VoIP providers worldwide, which makes the process of selecting a VoIP vendor rather daunting. In addition to Skype and Vonage, a less well-known, but growing US VoIP provider is Jajah at www.jajah.com. I chose these three vendors out of the 1,500 simply to show how the diversity of their business models indicates how flexible and extensible VoIP services are. Skype is a free software download that provides free calls (and video) from your PC made to anyone else using Skype, and low cost calls to anyone connected to a POTS telephone. Vonage is a subscription service that provides a router device that, when connected to a high speed Internet connection, allows you to make calls from any analog telephone. You can take the Vonage router with you when you travel and hook it up to any Internet connection, and make and receive telephone calls just as if you were physically located at your business. Jajah offers three types of services that can be accessed from any phone or web browser. VoIP can be used on your existing data (Internet) network, as long as you keep a few things in mind. If the power goes out, unlike POTS phones, VoIP systems will be affected unless you have an uninterruptible power supply on your data networking equipment. In addition, VoIP phones require electricity to operate. If your data network equipment does not provide power over Ethernet (PoE), then you’ll need alternate power sources for your phones. Depending on what type of PBX you are currently using, you may be able to use it with VoIP; check with your PBX provider. Two lingering concerns have limited the overall acceptance of VoIP systems: reliability and security. When VoIP is running on an existing data network, there is the potential for voice quality to be affected by overall network usage. For example if a few employees in your office are downloading large files, and you wish to make a VoIP call, the audio quality of your call may be affected unless the network has been properly provisioned. A recent survey of 300
Switching to VoIP can be a great way to save money on long distance and local calls. But don’t be deceived by lower prices. The cheapest service may not always be the best. Find and take advantage of trial plans offered by vendors to determine the right service for you. If you do your research before you switch, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and make your adoption of VoIP a much more productive experience. Experiences in CRM, Making Microsoft Dynamics CRM Work the Way Your Business Does - Part III, Managing Customer Support, Larry Lentz CRM MVP, Lentz Computer ServicesIn previous installments I covered how I have customized my Microsoft Dynamics CRM database to include the kind of things I need to keep track of and how I use CRM to market my business. In this installment, I will describe how I use it to keep track of the work I do for my customers. Managing Customer Support When clients contact me with a request for support, I use the Service module of CRM to manage their requests. When I receive the call or e-mail, I create a Case in CRM. Cases allow me to have a single item I can use to link all of the activities that may be related to the request. In your business, perhaps you might call it a project. When I create a new case, a workflow rule automatically sends the client an e-mail stating that we have set up the case and who will be working on it. I’ve actually cheated a bit as I’m using one of the templates that come with MS CRM. As we proceed with the Case, all activities, e-mail, phone calls, appointments, tasks, etc. are logged in the case. This way all those items associated with the case can be quickly found, rather than searching through the entire history of the customer. Of course it’s all there as well. Since CRM integrates so tightly with Outlook, my CRM calendar is included in Outlook and thereby on my PDA phone. When I visit a client, I record the time I arrive and the time I leave as well as notes of the work I perform. When my phone syncs back up with my system, all that information automatically flows into CRM. I use this for my billing. I can look at the Open Activities for each case and use those items and notes when making out my invoices. Once I’ve completed a Case, which generally includes having billed the customer, I can ‘Resolve’ it in CRM, which means close it. When I do so, that same workflow rule sends out another e-mail telling the customer we’ve completed their request. If for some reason they don’t think the job is complete, they have the opportunity to let me know. I have a couple of associates who help me out from time to time. They each own their own computer consultancies, but we try to cover for each other when need be. I have given them each a user account on my CRM system which allows them remote access. I haven’t given them total access however, just the access they need. When they need to service one of my customers, I can ‘Share’ that customer’s CRM records with them, giving them access to all the pertinent information and notes on the customer. They can also enter their efforts in the Case history for the jobs they do. This way they know all about the network, points of contact, address, etc. All in all, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has proven to be a great tool for running my Small Business Specialist practice. I have used other programs in the past, notably ACT! and GoldMine. GoldMine did have the ability to do some of the things I do in CRM, like send a new contact an e-mail and let me record activities on my PDA. But CRM lets me do much more, plus it allows me to structure my database to best meet MY needs. You can structure CRM to best meet YOUR needs as well. I hope this has given you a few thoughts about the possibilities. My implementation is certainly still a work in progress. You can find more information about Microsoft Dynamics CRM at http://www.microsoft.com/CRM. Local Chapter of Cisco IP Telecommunications User Group Formed in
A local chapter of the Cisco IP Telecommunications User Group (CIPTUG) came into being at the end of August and is now formally affiliated with the main CIPTUG organization. “It’s very exciting that we have a chapter finally in San Antonio as this will provide a great forum to learn about best practices in the fast-growing use of IP telecommunications,” said Robert Rausch, president of the organization and information technology director at Radiology Associates in San Antonio. “Users, especially those who have just ventured into this area of communication technology, want to be able to exchange ideas and experiences, meet other users and grow their expertise and product knowledge.” The organization of the new chapter was accomplished largely through the efforts of Computer Solutions, a Cisco Silver Partner for many years. “I’m grateful to everyone at Computer Solutions who worked on getting approval for a CIPTUG chapter in
The organization is driven by member needs and CIPTUG offers services, programs and events geared to supporting various membership levels. CIPTUG also offers web-based seminars and networking forums. The organization has corporate memberships that it makes available to IT and VoIP management and support staff of enterprises that have implemented or plan to implement Cisco unified communications systems. Vendor members also play a strong role, providing opportunities for members to view the latest products and services. Others on the local CIPTUG chapter board include Tim Zufelt (vice president) from NuStar, Christopher Byram (event chair) from M2 Global Technologies, Kara Buchanan (secretary) from Computer Solutions and Tim Menefee, who is Cisco chapter liaison and works at Cisco Systems in San Antonio. The
There is an annual CIPTUG annual conference with the program planned by end-users for end-users, with special-interest group sessions by industry and technology and a wide array of hands-on workshops. The initial meeting on September 11 featured George Gittins, senior voice network engineer from Computer Solutions whose presentation, “Reasons, Processes and Pitfalls of Upgrading to Unified Communications 6.X,” drew a good crowd. About Cisco IP Telecommunications Users Group CIPTUG, the official Cisco IP Telecommunications Users Group, is an independent association addressing the needs of Cisco Unified Communications users around the globe. Founded in 2001, today CIPTUG membership includes 1300+ end-users from over 500+ companies representing a variety of industries, knowledge and experiences. Throughout the year CIPTUG members participate in a wide range of educational programs, interactive forums, and collaborative activities to: · exchange information, experiences and best practices · influence Cisco and IPC Partners' product enhancements and directions · enhance their product knowledge and technical expertise · network with other users, Cisco and Cisco Partners. Additionally, Cisco Systems along with 100+ CIPTUG Vendor Members - Cisco Technology Developer Partners, Cisco Learning Partners and Cisco IPC Reseller Partners - actively support and participate in CIPTUG programs and events. More information is available at www.ciptug.org. For more information, please contact: Judy McCarter, 210-378-5566, judymc@mccarterpr.com or Kara Buchanan, Computer Solutions, 210-369-0348, kbuchanan@comsoltx.com
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