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Winter 2009 |
» IT Employment Continues to Decline in December
» Email Addiction: A Real Problem
» How to Get a Raise
» Microsoft Offers Tool to Calculate Carbon Footprint
» Tips for Living Within Your Means
» Top Technologies: 2009 & Beyond
» Return to Index Page
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| IT Employment Continues to Decline in December | Top |
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"While proving to be more resilient than the broader employment market through much of the year, the last two months clearly demonstrated IT employment is not immune to the macroeconomic trends adversely affecting the economy,” observed Mark Roberts, CEO of NACCB. “While long-term growth prospects for IT employment remain extremely favorable, based on all the data and reports we are seeing, we do not believe there will be a return to a pattern of growth in the near term,” added Roberts.
The IT employment index is published by the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), the national trade association representing IT staffing and solutions firms.
Technical note: NACCB’s IT Employment Index is the first specific measurement of IT employment. This unique measurement of total IT employment is created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 16 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers including the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, financial, information services, business and professional services, and education and health industries. The monthly IT Employment Index is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, with concomitant revisions to the Index. The IT Employment Index is also subject to annual revisions of BLS data. The IT Index was rebenchmarked in February 2008 with the publication of the BLS January 2008 employment report, reflecting significant revisions of employment data from the past several years.
ABOUT NACCB
NACCB is the only organization solely devoted to representing IT Staffing and Solutions firms and their employees who are creating a new paradigm for the flexible workforce driving the 21st Century economy. These firms provide IT staff augmentation, IT solutions, IT project management, and IT consulting services to America’s businesses. NACCB represents almost 400 IT services companies serving as the industry voice for public policy. NACCB also supports member companies in efficiently delivering high quality services to their clients. NACCB is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
http://www.naccb.org
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| Email Addiction: A Real Problem | Top |
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Warning Signs of Addiction:
- Checking e-mail every 15 minutes or less.
- Going through e-mail religiously when not at work.
- Interrupting in-person activities on a regular basis to look at and respond to e-mail.
- Interrupting non-professional life, such as sleep, family time, etc., to check e-mail.
- Needing to respond to an e-mail immediately.
- Feeling compelled to look at every e-mail.
- Adjust your e-mail client to check e-mail every couple of hours.
- If you check office e-mail from home, make a commitment not to look at it after a certain hour. Your family will thank you.
- If possible, decide on certain times of the day to deal with e-mail and commit to that schedule. You may be surprised how much time opens up in your day.
- Remember that there is no such thing as an "emergency e-mail." If it’s a true emergency, the method of communication should be a phone call, maybe a text message, but certainly not an e-mail.
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| How to Get a Raise | Top |
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- Find a job or assignment at a larger company (use an IT staffing/solutions company to find a position).
- Take on more responsibilities and ensure part of your work is outside of IT.
- Participate in the creation of overall business strategies and focus on revenue-building activities.
- Get additional training and/or a degree (Note: IT professionals with an MBA earn 15% more).
Soft skills are a critical asset in IT. Make sure your abilities in the following four areas are topnotch:
- Diplomacy – Yes, customers can be wrong. Instead of simply dismissing their ideas, try, "That's a good point, but …"
- Knowledge Sharing – Knowledge is an advantage and a talent—not an excuse to be arrogant. Try sharing and teaching as opposed to preaching and scolding.
- Listening – Asking questions and giving colleagues time to talk is a sign of flexibility and willingness to learn.
- Expectation Management – Remember that your customers/audience may not have a great impression of IT. Find out what you are up against and work to change negative sentiments with positive communications and professional work.
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| Microsoft Offers Tool to Calculate Carbon Footprint | Top |
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A new environmental toolset for Microsoft's Dynamics AX enterprise resource management software lets businesses find out the carbon footprint of various aspects of their operations.
The free toolset, called the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard, is aimed at letting small to medium-size businesses figure out their environmental impact without having to pay for outside consultants, according to Microsoft.
The software covers four metrics: direct energy consumption, such as of usage of natural gas on site; indirect energy consumption, such as electricity purchased from a third party; greenhouse gas emissions from an organization's total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from commuting and business travel.
The metrics are based on guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative, which develops ways to measure environmental sustainability.
Microsoft said the dashboard will let businesses choose good environmental practices as well as let them make adjustments to reduce exposure to fluctuating energy prices.
The dashboard has been designed to work with SharePoint, Microsoft's collaboration and portal software. The dashboard's components also integrate into so-called "role centers" in Dynamics, which are customized views used to manage different kinds of information for different jobs.
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| Tips for Living Within Your Means | Top |
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Cathy W. is 36, single, and facing a similar dilemma. "I'm a freelancer in computer graphics based out of San Francisco. I think I make decent money, but there's never any left over. I don't see how I could ever afford my own home - certainly not in this town. I have no investments, never mind retirement plans. How am I supposed to do it? That's what I'd like to know."
Michelle, Cathy, and others like them do have alternatives that could increase their income. They could hone their negotiation skills and ask for a raise or increase their freelance rates. If that fails, they could look for a better-paying job, or get a second one until they lessen the weight of their debt. But if they don't fundamentally change how they handle money, earning more now could even worsen their situation in the long run. If extra income isn't properly allocated, it often triggers a hike in living standards. People treat themselves to those designer shoes they've always wanted, get a better car, and replace the raggedy couch. It doesn't take long before they're staring down an even higher stack of bills and wondering why they're still broke.
Take control of spending
While falling in the last quarter of 2008, the latest government figures show that consumers' outstanding revolving credit raised to $963.5 billion, an increase of $24 billion from the previous year. A slight silver lining: although the personal savings rate also increased slightly to almost 3%, after several years hovering below 1%.
With so many Americans living beyond their means, what can people do to rein in spending? Bill Ellis, a commodities broker in Portland, Oregon, makes it sound simple. "I'm no financial wizard, but there are tried and tested rules of handling money that make for obvious savings even in the short term," he said. "People in financial services tend to assume the rest of the world is clued in to this stuff. But a lot of people would rather get a root canal than sit down and figure out a plan."
Is that all it takes, then - a plan? According to the self help books, of which there are shelves upon shelves in any bookstore, the first step to better personal finances is to know where your money is going. "Actually, we used to joke that the first step to creating wealth seemed to be writing a 'how-to' book on the subject," said Ellis. "When we're talking about someone with major credit card debt, though, we'd better hope they borrowed the self-help book from the library."
How hard can it be?
"The reality is that the people who most need to make drastic changes only do it in baby steps, if at all," said Ellis. "In fact, straightening out your money is not difficult to do." Easy for him, maybe, but what about those of us who haven't used a calculator since high school?
Assess the damage
To determine the extent to which you live within your means, said Keith Fortier, a compensation consultant at Salary.com, start by keeping track of what you spend for one month. "Carry a notebook to jot down each item and its cost to get a quick sense of what falls through the cracks," he said. "How much of your hard-negotiated take-home pay went to genuine essentials? How much of it went to items you could have done without?"
Financial analysts agree that learning the difference between what you need and what you want is crucial to getting out of debt and into wealth creation. People need food, clothing, and shelter; they want personal trainers, designer moisturizers, unlimited bandwidth, and tickets to the Super Bowl. In truth, most Americans don't need a fraction of the stuff we spend our money on. It's the bare necessities that form the bedrock of any budget.
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| Top Technologies: 2009 & Beyond | Top |
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As economic uncertainty wreaks havoc on corporate budgets, IT leaders are under increasing pressure to ensure the IT function and its activities are consistent with corporate strategic objectives. CIOs must carefully guard IT budget dollars, wisely choosing technology investments that will make the greatest strategic impact and increase revenue.
Recently, several lists and surveys have sought to predict the tools and strategies that will play the critical dual role of supporting business strategy while boosting company revenue. These lists offer a “sneak peek” at which technologies many CIOs and top IT executives will be implementing and/or expanding over the next three years.
According to technology research firm Gartner, Inc., its 2009 list focuses on technologies that "… impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives."
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Although they may be labeled differently, several technologies appear on both notable lists above, which is a strong indication they should be given serious implementation consideration. Here are the technologies that overlap:
- Virtualization: Though definitions vary depending upon the type of virtualization, essentially this technology allows one computer or application to do the work of several.
- Web/Internet Apps and Architectures: As the need for the interoperability of applications increases, so will the need to build Web-centric applications to meet global needs.
- Social Networking: When it comes to this technology, Gartner says the "risk lies in failure to engage and thereby, being left mute in a dialogue where your voice must be heard."
- Unified Communications: As consolidation continues in the communications industry, so will a company's reliance on fewer vendors.