Technical support is typically divided into multiple tiers that can also often be referred to as levels.  Most IT departments have accepted the practice of dividing their support analysts into 3 tiers/levels of support.  Tier 1 Support Agents deal with the majority of incoming calls to the help desk and create the trouble ticket that is to be analyzed/resolved.  Higher level (more complex) issues will be escalated to a Tier 2 (and possibly Tier 3 if necessary) Support Analyst.  Let’s talk about each tier individually and breakdown the functions of each.

Tier 1 Support

This is the 1^st line of defense and typically these Tier 1 Support Agents are the technicians responsible for gathering the users’ information, documenting the issue, and creating the trouble ticket for tracking/quality assurance purposes.   The more experienced Tier 1 analyst will also handle instances related to basic troubleshooting, password resets, application/internet navigation, and they will go over the basic troubleshooting techniques in order to determine what department/group should be assigned the issue.  Tier 1 analysts are generally young in their career/entry-level with typically 1-3 years of experience in IT.

If after the initial troubleshooting done by the Tier 1 Agent the issue cannot be resolved, the ticket will be escalated to a Tier 2 Support Analyst for more detailed diagnostics.

Tier 2 Support

These more experienced Support Analysts will start by reviewing the information and preliminary steps taken by the Tier 1 Support Agent.  Tier 2 Support Analysts are more experienced and generally have 4-8 years of IT Support experience, and many will be pursuing advanced certifications to strengthen their abilities.  They can quickly assess the situation based on this information provided and move towards resolving the issue.  At this level, more in depth troubleshooting occurs. These Analysts will have a more complex understanding of your specific hardware/software, network connectivity, and software related issues.  Due to their multiple years of experience troubleshooting/resolving similar technical issues on a daily basis they have experienced a wide variety of technical issues making them more familiar with how to resolve complex problems.  The Tier 2 team will utilize multiple types of diagnostic tools in order to take appropriate actions to fix the problem quickly.  This may include diagnostic testing, software analysis, software repair, hardware repair/replacement, and utilizing remote control tools to take over your system for the purpose of finding the root cause (and therefore a solution) to the issues a customer is experiencing.  If the Tier 2 Analyst has exhausted all their resources and the problem still persists, or if they determine it is an issue that they do not have the necessary level of access to resolve…they will then escalate the problem to a Tier 3 Analyst.

Tier 3 Support

The Tier 3 team is typically made up of more senior engineers that are specialized and often times they serve as the department’s SME (subject matter expert) on a particular area of the corporate IT infrastructure/software product suite.  These engineers are often highly certified holding accreditations like the MCSE, CCNA, CCNP, CISSP, and many others giving them a much more in depth understanding of how to manipulate and troubleshoot certain hardware/software issues in order to determine a solution.  Tier 3 Engineers are often called on to troubleshoot new/unknown issues with a particular device or application.  The average experience level for a Tier 3 Engineer is usually 10+ years allowing them an extensive background working with the hardware/software that is causing the issue.

The life of a trouble ticket can be unpredictable and sometimes even a simple situation like a username/password issue can lead to uncovering complex root issues that caused the problem in the first place.  The end result is always to resolve the issue as quickly as possible with as little downtime for the customer.  Utilizing the 3 tier support system allows a team to determine the proper course of action through a proven approach.  It can be frustrating at times, but rest assured that your issue is important and the IT Support Team is actively troubleshooting/analyzing this event.  They are not only working to solve the immediate problem for you fast and efficiently, but to hopefully ensure it doesn’t happen again to you or anyone else within the organization.

As an IT Staffing professional, the questions often asked by my candidates are, “What certifications should I pursue” and “do I need certain certifications to be successful.”  There are certainly advantages to being certified, and many times employers will seek out particular certifications over a technical 4-year degree.  These are the top 5 hottest and most highly requested certifications that are the most beneficial in today’s IT market.

1. CompTIA A+

The A+ certification is an entry level certification that all aspiring IT Professionals should achieve.  It shows commitment to starting your career out with more than just book knowledge, and it demonstrates that you can apply your learned skills to real-world troubleshooting issues.  Later in your career this certification won’t carry as much impact, but if you are new in the industry and looking for an edge over the growing competition, I would suggest this as your starting point to add that extra piece to your resume the next guy decided to skip.

2. MCTS/MCITP

These are the newest IT Infrastructure related certifications from Microsoft.  They are quickly gaining popularity and will set you apart from the hundreds (thousands) of others with similar skills and experience.  Microsoft has led the way in corporate computing environments in most industries, so it is only fitting that they lead the way in industry-standard certifications.  These certifications give a hiring manager /recruiter a sense of confidence that you have the knowledge and dedication to be successful.  They are targeted certifications for your specific skill set.  Some of the more popular (and valuable) certifications in these categories would be: Windows Server, Exchange, Virtualization, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Windows Client, and Windows Mobil.  With a targeted certification like these, you don’t have a broad-range generalized certification of Microsoft products…you actually show value to your interviewing manager by having certified your expertise in the primary technology currently leading the industry, which is why these are highly sought after by IT Managers nationwide.

3. CCNA/CCNP/CCIE

Cisco networking products are by far the most widely used switching/routing technology and has been the industry standard for many years.  Other competing products have started to become more common in certain industries, but Cisco is still the standard by which all others are compared, so it only makes sense that this line of certifications be the standard by which all potential employees are compared as well.  For a career in corporate enterprise level networking, these certifications should be considered a “must have” to be successful.  The education they provide shows a premier example that you are one of “the best” in the business.  Hiring managers and recruiters looking for experienced networking professionals will often look to see if the person has achieved their Cisco certification level that is appropriate for the job, and begin to choose who they will interview from there.  CCNA (at a minimum) should be acquired by anyone with a career that involves routing/switching, and many employers will require it to be obtained before they will hire you…or within 90 days of starting the job.  The further certifications only prove your value as a senior associate and subsequent pay increases are certainly to follow as your certification level increases with experience and further education.  CCIE professionals are some of the most highly sought after (and highly paid) IT Professionals in the United States today.  I don’t expect this to change anytime soon, so if you’re making a career out of routing/switching and Cisco is your core experience (which it should be) then you should highly consider pursuing these certifications to help advance your career to the next level.

4. ITIL (Foundation/Practitioner/Manager)

ITIL standards are quickly becoming the foundation of operating an efficient IT Service Management department.  ITIL framework defines how the system and network management departments should be defined for peak efficiency.  As more and more IT departments strive to adhere to ITIL standards they are seeking out employees that are certified in the ITIL Foundations in order to continue to perform at peak efficiency.  I have hiring managers that will not consider adding to their staff if the individual has not previously worked in an ITIL shop or already has the ITIL Foundations certification.  I foresee this becoming more and more common as corporations embrace the advantages these principals add to their organization.

5. CISSP

The CISSP was the first credential in the field of information security accredited by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) to ISO Standard 17021:2003.  Corporate security has always been a concern, but even more so in today’s cyber world of high tech computing and network/server hacking warfare.  There are several security related certifications and all of them will add value to your background and credibility to your skills, but none as much as the CISP.  This certification is probably the most requested certification from hiring managers looking for senior level IT security professionals.  If you have at least five years of IT Networking and IT Security experience, this should be one of you next career goals. I should also note that this certification ranked among the top 5 highest paid certified IT professionals in the industry.

By focusing strictly on technology related certifications in this list there are many that I have not mentioned, but are very highly sought after as well.  A PMP certification (for example) is almost always requested when I’m asked to find an experienced Project Manager.  Having a PMP is crucial to a successful career in Project Management.  There are other certifications in a variety of technical specialties, but those listed above are the ones that I am asked about most often.  Some of these certifications are important when beginning your career, and some of them are critical to achieving that next level of advancement (professionally and financially) as your career grows.  My advice is once you are on a career path, ask around from other industry professionals to see what‘s new and sought after.  Then decide if a related certification will help you pursue that career path.  More often than not I would imagine it certainly will.

Information is everywhere regarding what you should say/do in an interview.  But it can be just as important to realize what not to say/do.  It is also imperative to note that what you say can be communicated through both your words and actions.  Let’s talk about some of the more common ways that people have ruined their chances at getting an offer.

1. You arrive late to the interview.

What it means: “I really don’t care about getting this position.”

It is always recommended to arrive at least 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time to give you time to collect your thoughts, review your notes and make a good first impression.

2. You’re rude to the receptionist.

What it means: “I’m difficult to work with…you’re a snob that thinks people are beneath you.”

Remember…receptionists are the gate keepers and it’s their job to be the eyes and ears of the company.  Also it’s important to note that, if hired, you may need their help with something one day.

3. You answer questions with trite or cliché responses.

What it means: “I’m just one of the crowd.”

Telling the interviewer you are a perfectionist and expect too much of yourself is sure to elicit a yawn.  These standard/canned answers are so over-used.  Be original and actually try to think about an answer that is personal to you.  Prepare potential responses ahead of time to avoid relying on the usual interview cliché answers.  Don’t try so hard to find some cute way of saying something.  Just be honest about yourself, direct answers with merit are always the best choice.

4. You don’t ask questions.

What it means: “I’m not that interested in your company or this job.”

The interview should be a two-way conversation to determine if you are the right fit for the company, and if the company is the right fit for you. Use the interview to gather as much information about your potential new position as possible, but don’t dominate the conversation.  You need to give the interviewer time to get to know you too.

5. You answer the standard “Tell us about yourself,” with “What would you like to know?”

What it means: “I have nothing special to offer this company.”

This is your opportunity to steer the conversation into areas where you truly shine. Don’t waste this chance by appearing to lack any outstanding qualities you want to share. And please don’t start with where you were born. Focus on your career unless your birthplace is relevant to the job. It is very (VERY) rare that an interviewer will ask you this question and expect a personal life story.  They want to know the relevant details of your experience/life that actually have something to do with the job/company where you are interviewing.

6. You use inappropriate language.

What it means: “I’m unprofessional and if it shows in the short span of an interview, imagine what I’ll be like in the office.”

Even if they’re only mild and using somewhat acceptable words, there still is no place for them in the interview.  Adhering to proper grammar (no slang) and definitely NEVER use offensive language at any time during the interview.

7. Bad-mouth your former boss or company.

What it means: “I have no discretion…I’ll blab any inside information.”

If you left your prior job on poor terms, you need to put this relationship in a positive light for the interview.  Even if your old boss really was to blame…you don’t’ want to say that in your interview.  You never want to bring negativity into the interview.  Keep it positive and upbeat.

8. You ask the interviewer not to contact your former employer.

What it means: “I have something to hide.”

Even if you do not get along with your boss, you can always name someone else in the organization as a reference.

9. You exaggerate your accomplishments or credentials.

What it means: “I need to lie to make myself look good.”

A skilled interviewer can easily identify fabrications in your background or experience.  State your qualifications with confidence.  Be proud of what you can do and how well you can do it.  You don’t have to be Superman to get hired; you just have to be right for the job.

10. You don’t thank the interviewer.

What it means: “I have no manners.”

Forgetting to thank your interviewers in writing for their time can take the luster from even the most stellar interviewee.  Always ask for a business card so you have the ability to send a follow-up “thank you” letter once you get home.

These are 10 of the most important things NOT to do as these have all proven in the past to be “deal killers”.  I have personally experienced people losing their job offer based on 1 of these items over the years.  These things will truly ruin your chances of being hired.

1. Keeping some information about your job/life a secret makes you look sneaky

There are times when keeping information discreet from a prospective employer is a good idea and then there are times when you need to put it all on the table.  When working with a recruiter for a job, it will benefit you to NOT hold these things back.  Talk about it with your recruiter and let them be your advisor to help strategize how to present the information and at what time.  Recruiters are highly beneficial in the job search process. They give you an advantage that other job applicants don’t have.  They KNOW the hiring manager who will be reviewing your resume. They know how they operate, their pet peeves, and what the manager really wants from an employee.  Trust your recruiter to help you, and they will trust you in return.  Hiding things about your professional or personal past will only make you look sneaky and hurt you in the end.

2. Being too vague about your skills and experience

You have worked at XYZ Company for 5 years, and yet your resume only has 2 or 3 bullet points describing your experience.  That doesn’t work.  Recruiters (and hiring managers) are not mind readers.  They aren’t going to be able to always know what tools and technology you used to accomplish your tasks at your job.  Being specific and describing not only what your accomplishments are in detail, but also the tools/technology you used to accomplish these tasks is highly important.  Name the software you used, what version, and how you utilized it will greatly increase your chances of being hired.  Not doing so will greatly increase your chances of being passed over for a job you might have been perfect for, but nobody knew it because you were too vague in your description.

3. The recruiter shouldn’t have to do ALL the work for you

Recruiters should not have to re-write your resume or hold your hand through the entire process.  Yes…a good recruiter will be sure to provide you with all the information at their disposal to be certain you are completely informed about the job skills, hiring manager’s personality, interviewing tips, and more, but do your research as well.  Look up the company and find out what they do.  Learn about the other skills the job is looking for but you might not have a lot of experience with.  There is a lot a headhunter will provide to ensure you have the tools you need to be successful, but you must be willing to take this information and tools and put them to effective use for your own success.

4. If you won’t modify your resume to fit the specific job better you look either lazy or you’re wrong candidate for the position

Your general resume was good enough for the recruiter to give you a call and learn more about you.  They know much more about the hiring manager’s needs/desires than what is on paper, and many times they will need you to spend a little time on your resume to “tweak” it a little in order to bring out the particular skills they know you have, but the hiring manager might have a hard time identifying them in the current version of your resume.  Unwillingness to put in the work here is a big “red flag” for headhunters.  This is an important benefit the recruiter is trying to share with you to help YOU.  Ignoring this part of the process will be a sign that they should just move on to the next person that is really serious about getting a new job.

5. If you don’t have the skills for the job don’t apply for the job

I can’t tell you how many times I receive resumes from candidates that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the job they are applying for.  It’s ridiculous.  Don’t send your resume to a job that you clearly do not have the required skills for.  Why waste your time and the time of a recruiter that could really help you if a job that matches your skills is available?  I’ve actually called a few of these people. Mainly to ask what their background and why they applied for this job.  Most common answer is, “I am a fast learner and can pick up any skills very quickly.”  That may be true, but recruiters are paid to find the skills the hiring manager needs now…not to find someone that could be trained.  Hiring managers can find someone to be trained on their own.  If you want to work with a particular recruiter or staffing company call them and ask to talk to the recruiting department.  They may have a job opening that matches your skills, but applying for one that clearly does not match your skills is just a waste of time.

6. Your online profiles and social media content DO matter and can cost you the job

This is becoming more and more of a problem.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and various other social networking venues are being looked at by HR and hiring managers before an offer is made.  I have actually had candidates, who were technically great for the job, LOSE the offer because of their Facebook profile and the pictures they had out there online for public view.  I can’t stress this bit of advice enough…keep your personal life PRIVATE online and do NOT post pictures that a potential employer can view.  Create a private profile.  Lock out anyone you don’t know from viewing your pictures.  Good recruiters (and hiring managers) are looking up your online profiles to learn more about your personal life and it can cost you the job if there are things on there that can be considered “less than professional.”

7. Don’t wait until you are out of work to contact a recruiter – be proactive

Fact of life – hiring managers prefer to hire someone that is already gainfully employed.  It’s just the nature of the beast I guess.  Another reason to already be in contact with a trusted recruiter is to keep your resume and skills fresh on their minds.  When a job becomes available that your skills are a great match for, they can call you and tell you about it right away.  You might not be interested at that moment, but don’t wait until you are out of work to keep your options open. You must stay ahead of the competition.  Be pro-active with your resume and job search.  Not only will you be more marketable to a prospective hiring manager, but you won’t have to go through all the preliminary steps with the recruiter before the interview stage.  You’ll already have that out of the way and be that much closer to your new job.

8. Don’t make the headhunter guess what it is you are best at

This is similar to being thorough on your resume descriptions.  Talk with your recruiter about your skills and background to let them know where you excel.  There may be important things you are so used to being part of your daily life at work that you didn’t even think to put them on the resume.  These are things that hiring managers probably won’t assume you’re good at if they aren’t told.  If you don’t tell me what you can do…I don’t know you can.  Help me help you!!

9. Being secretive about your salary or being vague about your total compensation

This is another time waster almost as bad as submitting your resume for a job you clearly don’t have the skills for.  If you need $120,000 per year to consider a new job you need to tell the recruiter this information so they don’t call you for a job paying only $80,000 per year.  You know what your current compensation is and you know what you are really willing to consider.  The recruiter you’re working with needs to know this too in order to make sure you are the right person for the job.  There are a lot of considerations regarding compensation.  Location, benefits, bonuses, and corporate perks all play a part in the final decision to accept a job or not.  The recruiter knows the best ways to negotiate with their hiring managers.  They work with these managers constantly to match skills, compensation, and personality profiles to the job openings.  Hiding your compensation or not being willing to discuss this openly will cause problems in the hiring process and just complicate the situation.  Don’t wait until after weeks of interviewing to deal with an issue that could easily be out of the way before all that time was wasted for all people involved.

10. Constantly calling/harassing your headhunter about feedback

The recruiter is just as anxious to hear feedback on your resume from their hiring manager as you are.  Rest assured that as soon as the recruiter knows something, they are going to call you and talk about it.  Good or bad, they know you need to know.  Same goes for interviewing.  Your recruiter can hardly wait to hear back from the hiring manager about your interview and to talk about the next steps.  Calling them over and over again several times a day is not going to make them get the information any faster for you.  Yes it can be nerve-racking…we know.  Just know your recruiter is actively pursuing this information for you and will certainly call you the moment they know how things went and what next steps need to be taken.  If you are waiting on feedback, I would suggest that calling your recruiter every 48 hours just to “touch base” would be appropriate. Also, if you have had changes in your availability (got another interview or have an offer), then calling to let them know is also an expected professional courtesy.

These things will help you avoid common pitfalls that can ruin your chance of getting the offer and finding your next job.  Keeping your competitive edge in today’s market is crucial, and now that you are aware of many things people do to ruin their own chances you can avoid these things and be at the top of your game.

Since I am not proficient in all technology trends, the rising popularity of virtualization was not something I could quickly wrap my head around. When I hear the word “virtualization” I think of “virtual reality” games and training. Wikipedia’s definition of “virtual reality” is: “a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world”. So I then deducted that “virtualizing a server” was something along the lines of using a virtual server to do the job of a physical server when the physical one was not available. While I was happy with my conclusion, I had to know if I was right. I sat down with Doug Cottle, one of our Technical Analysts, and grilled him on the topic. It turns out, my assumption was fairly correct, and I got even more information on virtualization which I am glad to now share with you.

THE “INTERVIEW”

Christine:

Doug, there’s been a recent buzz in the business world about server virtualization. What does it mean to virtualize a server?

Doug:

Virtualizing a server is basically taking a physical server and creating an electronic version of it or a Virtual Machine.  A physical host server is setup that can run multiple Virtual Machines.

Christine:

Ok, so what are the major advantages of virtualization?

Doug:

Virtualization offers many advantages over running independent physical machines.  Many times software is spread across multiple servers not because of resource limitations but to avoid conflicts between the applications.  By virtualizing the servers you can run multiple servers from a single physical box.  For example: Instead of buying a physical server for Microsoft Exchange and another physical server for Blackberry Enterprise Server you can simply buy one server and set it up as a VM Host, then run the virtual instances of both the Exchange and BES from the single host.  Fewer physical boxes results in lower equipment and operation costs as well as conserving space through consolidation.  Virtualization also offers companies a way to implement redundancy without purchasing additional hardware.  Other benefits include: Simple backup and disaster recovery solutions, aid in testing and development, and to centralize server administration.

Christine:

Why do you think it is becoming such a hot topic now?

Doug:

Hardware resources (processing power/memory) have increased faster than software resource demand.  It makes sense economically to Virtualize.  Virtualization is a cost effective solution that has many great benefits and is easier to implement now than ever.

Christine:

Hmm, that is really interesting. Are there any disadvantages though that people should be aware of before virtualizing?

Doug:

Aside from requiring new skills that the current administrator may not have the biggest drawback to virtualization is a single hardware failure can bring down multiple servers.  If you have a VM host running four of you main production servers and the motherboard dies, your four production servers are now dead as well.  Of course with redundant systems in place it would not be an issue.  Having a single point of failure for multiple servers is probably one of the biggest items to be taken in to consideration when planning to virtualize.  Doing your homework during the planning phase will definitely pay off years down the road.

This “interview” with Doug really helped me fill in the gaps of my understanding of virtualization. I hope you feel better informed as well.

If you have any questions or would like further information about virtualization, please visit RSA Corp or email us at info@rsacorp.com.

When talking “technology” among you colleagues and friends, who comes to mind as the man that started it all?  Would it be Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Or maybe in your circle of friends it’s all about Linus Torvalds?  Well, in honor of Father’s Day, let’s think back even farther.  Back to the real “Father of Computers” and the man that in many ways really is the one that is truly responsible for kicking off this progression that has led to where we are today.  I’m talking (of course) about Charles Babbage.  He was given the title “Father of Computers” in 1970 by Daniel Halacy.

Charles’ life’s work was to create a machine (Difference Engine) that would replace the need for a person to perform the painstakingly tedious task of manual calculations.  At the time, it was a low-level mindless job function performed by a team of people referred to as “computers” because their sole job duty was to add and subtract (to compute) data.  It was terribly inefficient and there were many errors in the calculation.  Charles believed that a machine could be built to accomplish this task and replace the need for a large staff of unskilled workers performing basic addition and subtraction, and that the machine could be relied on to perform these computations more accurately at a much faster rate.  This (for all practical purposes) was the first time a machine would be referred to as a “computer”.  This was the mechanical offspring that earned Babbage the title “The Father of Computers”.

Charles Babbage gave birth to this idea.  He spent his life designing and redesigning this “Difference Engine” (mechanical computer) and it has gone on to develop quite a life of its own.  Did he know the impact this would have on the world?  Did he know that his mechanical offspring would go on to create the ideas and new offspring and one day there would be computers carried around in people’s pockets more powerful than anything ever imagined at the time?

As a father, I can’t imagine all the ways my babies will grow up and impact the lives around them.  I try to instill my values and ensure they are happy and healthy in childhood with (of course) the hopes that one day they grow up and realize all their dreams in life.  Every parent wants their child to succeed. We want them to grow and develop a great life in adulthood; but can we really imagine the impact our children will have on the world 20 or 30 years from now?  We would like to imagine we will still be around to see our babies grow to their full potential in adulthood and see the wonderful life we created making a positive impact on our world.  This unfortunately wasn’t the case for Mr. Babbage.  His Difference Engine would not be completed until 1991 (120 years after his death) and its first computation successfully returned a result with 31 digits, far more than the modern calculator.  He is quoted (referring to this Difference Engine) as saying, “Another age must be the judge” because he did not have the parts, nor the technology, to see his designs to completion.  The designs he created went on to form a life of their own and have, in turn, flourished and thrived to spawn advancements in technology far beyond his wildest dreams.  The basic architecture of Babbage’s machines is not much different than a modern computer.  The data and program memory are separated, operation was instruction based, the control unit could make conditional jumps and the machines had a separate I/O unit.  So in many ways, that he himself probably didn’t completely realize, he designed a machine that would become the basis for the modern computer and change the world forever.

Next time you’re talking “technology” with your friends and coworkers, see how many of them can actually recall who holds the title “The Father of Computers”.  Remind them that it was the designs and ideas of Charles Babbage that really started it all.

Happy Father’s Day to you, Charles  Babbage, and to all of you great dads out there!

Hiring a new employee is stressful; it’s a gamble, and there is often times a lot of apprehension about making the right decision.  Is this REALLY the right person for your team?  Will you see the ROI on your time and money put into this new hire?  Maybe it feels like the right time to expand your team by adding another skilled person, or maybe you find yourself needing to add a specialized skill set to your department.  Bringing in a skilled contractor can alleviate much of this apprehension and concern because it isn’t quite as risky of a commitment as spending time and valuable resources on a permanent hiring decision.  Here are some of the best reasons to consider adding a contractor to your team.

Number 5:
Need to add an effective person temporarily

Let’s face it…there are times during the course of a project when things can get out of hand.  Milestones and deadlines are fast approaching and you aren’t sure your team is going to meet their goal.  The full-time staff is doing a great job, but an extra set of experienced hands could make the difference between making or breaking a deadline on many mission-critical projects.  Adding one or two contractors with direct experience on similar projects will save time, free up your full-time resources for daily business activities, and allow an expert to ensure successful delivery of the project. Contractors can save the DAY!!

Number 4:
Contractors are cheaper to have on staff than a permanent employee

With the cost of insurance, taxes, workman’s comp, etc…etc…constantly on the rise, the cost of having a full-time employee goes up every year.  Add to that the upfront cost and time invested in training a permanent employee to be sure he/she is up to speed and able to be effective and you can see how much the investment is in the first few months of employment.  What you need to ask yourself is, “would a contractor be just as effective in this role and available to make a difference from day one?”  Often times the answer is a resounding “YES”, and thousands of dollars could be saved every week allowing more budget to improve the department elsewhere.  It takes an experienced Staffing Partner to know the connections in your area with the right skills to really be effective immediately, but this is often times seen as a more cost-effective solution vs. hiring a full-time/permanent employee.

Number 3:
Faster Ramp-up Time

An experienced contractor will be at the top of their game in technology which allows them to be effective immediately.  Instead of weeks/months of training and acclimating to your environment, a contractor will be an effective team player (or leader) from day one and begin to solve mission critical problems; making your life easier.  Many of our hiring managers keep several contractors on-site working with their permanent employees several times a year in order to keep everyone’s skills sharp, expose them to the latest and greatest techniques/technologies, and to augment their staff at peak times of production when necessary.

Number 2:
The skills you need are more common in the Consulting/Contracting market

There are a wide variety of highly-specific and needed skill sets out there in the IT world that are predominately possessed by independent contractors.  IT Departments and Corporations needing these skills for specialized projects often benefit from employing the services of an outside (third party) firm or independent consultant.  Using a third party partner is also desired in many situations due to their inherent unbiased approach.  These skills may also be rare or hard to keep on staff due to the ever-changing nature of things in IT.  ERP professionals, Security audits/assessments, Infrastructure Architects, and systems implementation professionals are a few areas where there is often a much greater talent-pool in the contractor community, and an unbiased third party approach would prove very advantageous.

Number 1:
Contract-to-Hire (try before you buy)

You really do need a full-time/permanent employee, but you don’t have time to go through weeks of interviewing only to not really be 100% sure you have chosen the “right guy” for the job.  The contract-to-hire option allows you to bring someone on without the initial cost of a direct hire employee and provides 3-6 months of “contract time” to let this person really prove they ARE the right person you want as a permanent addition to your team.  It allows you to keep the production up by hiring a contractor and if they don’t prove to be the “right guy” for the job you can end the contract and bring in another contractor to try them out for the permanent position; all without any down-time.  In fact…bringing someone to work as a contractor, with the potential to become a permanent employee, will improve the team’s production and you will feel confident in your decision to hire (or not to hire) this individual when the time is right.

Join RSA Corp, friends, and colleagues at this fabulous Agile Workshop by Mac Iver Group, LP on Monday, June 6th.

Duration: One Day

Class Size: 8 to 24 persons

Come Take An Agile Journey

Then this workshop is for you. Whether you are a project manager, business analyst, developer, tester, architect, product manager, team leader, business manager, quality control analyst, or simply “agile curious” this workshop is your chance to get some hands on experience with agile practices. Come roll up your sleeves and jump into a day of activities, exercises, and interactive discussions that will let you touch and feel agile practices and take them out for a spin.

The solution to Mary getting in trouble in the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, is obvious and apparent; just don’t take that little lamb to school!  Sometimes problems in business seem as obvious and they are easy to fix.  Other times, not so much.  A manufacturing client of ours had an issue meeting commitment deadlines and getting their product shipped.  With RSA’s help, our client in the below, rewritten nursery rhyme was able to pinpoint the areas in the process that were causing the issue and utilize the custom app that we wrote for them to monitor production daily and meet their commitments.

Just as Mary got in trouble for taking her lamb to school in the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, our client kept getting complaints from their customers because their shipments were not arriving on time. They turned to RSA to help them understand why they were missing their commitments and why their shipments were not meeting their schedule.

RSA Corp was glad to provide the solution to their problem. RSA developed a customized application for that examines each completed work order, analyzes promise verses completion dates, reviews the logic of how the product moves through the environment, and then determines why the commit date was not met. With our help, the client is able to identify WHY their business isn’t running smoothly and can take immediate action to correct it.

Mary Had a Custom App…

Client had a shipment date, 

Shipment date, shipment date,

Client had a shipment date,

They often couldn’t meet.

And every time they missed a date,

Missed a date, missed a date,

And every time they missed a date,

They had to face the heat.

They needed help from RSA,

RSA, RSA,

They needed help from RSA,

To get them back on time.

We made an app to show the way,

Show the way, show the way,

We made an app to show the way,

Their goods moved through the line.

And so they saw where they went wrong,

They went wrong, they went wrong,

And so they saw where they went wrong,

With timing on the floor.

Production now moves right along,

Right along, right along,

Production now moves right along,

And makes it out the door.

“Can a custom app help me too?”

Help me too? Help me too?

“Can a custom app help me too,”

Smart businesses do cry.

“Yes, they can help business improve.”

Business improve, business improve,

“Yes, they can help business improve,”

Is RSA’s reply.

When it comes to hiring new employees, the simple fact is that having a staffing firm locate candidates allows you to focus on other tasks besides hiring. However, working with a generic staffing firm may actually end up costing you more time/money. Such staffing firms are more generalists and try to place candidates in all kinds of industries.  Therefore, they tend to not have a solid understanding of ANY industry, including yours.

Many companies think that all staffing firms are fairly similar. Yes, they all find candidates to fill your open positions. HOWEVER, generic staffing firms typically have no working knowledge of specific vertical markets and are only recommending candidates whose resumes include the same words listed in the job description. Well that’s what you wanted, right? WRONG!

Sports Analogy

Let’s use the Pittsburg Steelers as an example. Let’s say that Head Coach, Mike Tomlin, needed to fill their Strong Safety position.  This is what Tomlin asks a generic staffing firm to find him:

• Position: Strong Safety
• Fast
• Strong
• At least 2 Super Bowl rings

To Tomlin, the youngest head coach in NFL history to coach in and win a Super Bowl, this list of qualifications would be enough to find him a Strong Safety. The generic staffing firm, on the other hand, will not know what is considered “fast” or “strong” as it pertains to the uniqueness of the Strong Safety position. They don’t know what a Strong Safety does for the team so they don’t know that their candidate needs to be really fast and agile to allow him to switch directions when chasing down receivers. The generic firm also wouldn’t know that, while the candidate needs to be strong enough to tackle a receiver once he catches up to him, he does not have to be the strongest player on the team. Therefore, the generic staffing firm submits a candidate who matches the qualifications listed…to the best of their knowledge.

Who do they submit? Ben Roethlisberger (the current quarterback for the Steelers).

“Big Ben” has average speed, is physically strong, and has 2 Super Bowl rings. Yet, at this point, Coach Tomlin switches from a generic staffing firm to a Specialized Staffing Firm. Why? The answer is relatively simple: a professional staffing firm that specializes in his industry, football, would see that “Big Ben” is specially trained to excel in strong accurate throws, defensive awareness, and leadership.  The Specialized Staffing Firm would submit “Big Ben” as a strong quarterback, but would realize he is too big and slow to be a Strong Safety.

Coach Tomlin will be much happier when the Specialized Staffing Firm submits Troy Polamalu (the current strong safety for the Steelers). Polamalu not only meets the written qualifications, but his incredible speed and sharp eyes helps him make interceptions which is a qualification that is simply understood when you are familiar with the sport.

This deep understanding of the industry allows Specialized Staffing Firms, like RSA Corp, to introduce companies to better qualified candidates in a shorter period of time. If you need to fill an important professional position within your company, beware of handing it off to a generic staffing firm as they might…. “drop the ball”!

Good luck to the Pittsburgh Steelers as they play the New York Jets this Sunday in their drive towards a 7th  Super Bowl Championship!

On the first day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Business Support for IT.

On the second day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the third day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the fifth day of Christmas,

My IT Partner gave to me
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Eight onsite visits
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Nine tech employees
Eight onsite visits
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Ten system integrations
Nine tech employees
Eight onsite visits
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Eleven blogs of info
Ten system integrations
Nine tech employees
Eight onsite visits
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My IT Partner gave to me
Twelve IT services
Eleven blogs of info
Ten system integrations
Nine tech employees
Eight onsite visits
Seven days a week of monitoring
Six SharePoint projects
Five custom apps
Four DR solutions
Three Staffing options (contract, direct hire, contract-to-hire)
Two security features (email and web)
And business support for IT!

Happy Holidays from your IT Partner, RSACorp!

You have the right resume, you have an interview with the hiring manager, and all looks great for this new job.  There are some commonly misunderstood actions/conversations that can (and do) occur if you’re not prepared.  Moments in (and after) the interview that you thought would be taken as a positive response/action are often times misunderstood.

Let’s go over some of the more common action pitfalls that can easily be avoided, and how you can still get your point across in a more productive way.  This way you won’t be left saying to yourself…WAIT…That’s not what I MEANT!!!

Action

Show up at a hiring manager’s office after you recently interviewed to reaffirm your interest in the position and your ability to do the job instead of waiting for their call as directed.

How You Meant It

“I am eager to be a proactive problem solver and really think I am the right person for the job.  I should be hired because I am the best man for the job.”

How They Interpreted It

He is not able to follow instructions and he’s too eager.

Recommended Action

During the interview be sure you request the business card of every person you interview with.  This allows you to send each interviewer (especially the hiring manager) an individual “Thank You” email as a follow-up.  Doing this will get your point across that you are interested and eager, without being overly pushy.

____________________________________________________________

Action

Talking to the hiring manager about the next steps in your career and how this position will certainly help you achieve your goals.

How You Meant It

“This job is in the field I really want to be in and I look forward to learning all that I can in this position to allow me growth potential in the future.”

How They Interpreted It

He is looking to acquire new skills in our training sessions for this position so he can then get a better job at a different company.

Recommended Action

Talking about future growth and learning new skills is a great idea, but be sure to keep the conversation focused on short-term growth goals related to this position, expanding responsibility for this position, and how you will expand your experience.  Try not to jump ahead 2-3 promotions during the interview process.

____________________________________________________________

Action

Talking about your personal life, hobbies, family, or other extracurricular activities.

How You Meant It

“I am an active and well rounded person. I love learning new things.”

How They Interpreted It

He has so much going on in his personal life that it must be hard for him to be 100% focused on work.  Some of these personal activities might also be a turn-off to the potential hiring manager if he does not approve of some of your personal choices outside of work.

Recommended Action

Avoid talking about your personal life unless directly asked about it. NEVER talk about politics or religion (obviously), and I would caution against talking too much about family, kids, and things of this nature; especially in your 1^st interview.  When an interviewer asks you to tell them about yourself be sure you tell them about your “Professional Self”.  Career highlights, major projects, and personal professional milestones should be the subject unless the interviewer asks you a direct question about your personal life.

____________________________________________________________

Action

Criticizing/talking negatively about a former employer or supervisor in an interview.

How You Meant It

“I would like a job with your company because you conduct your business much better than my last employer. This is a better personality match and so we won’t run into problems that I had working for my old boss.”

How They Interpreted It

He is a complainer and likes to blame other people for problems. If he will speak this way about his former employer, we know he will speak this way about us if we disagree about anything.  Better to avoid the potential problem and move on to the next resume.

Recommended Action

Always speak professionally about your former boss/employer.  Even if you have nothing “good” to say about them, it is always recommended to say that you find something positive to talk about.  It is acceptable to tell the interviewer that your previous company was not able to utilize your skills to their fullest potential and you look forward to becoming a valuable asset to this company.  This should get the point across that your last job wasn’t a perfect match, but does so without being directly negative or talking bad about your boss/employer.

____________________________________________________________

Action

Showing up to an interview WAY too early.

How You Meant It

“I am excited, confident, and prepared for this interview. I am not in the habit of being late.”

How They Interpreted It

You are eager…and desperate.

Recommended Action

Show up for your interview 15-20 minutes before the scheduled interview time.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get to the building earlier than that, but wait in your car, drive around the block a few times, kill some time somehow.  It is proper interviewing etiquette to check in for your interview 15 minutes early, but being there 30-45 minutes early will be looked at as desperation and could negatively affect your salary negotiation process in the future.

These are some of the most common misunderstood moments of interviewing.

So now, on your next interview, you can be more prepared to say what you mean and mean what you say.  I hope these tips help you be confident that the hiring manager will hear it the same way!

So…you’ve decided you want a new job. You’ve picked the field you want to be in. You’ve searched high and low for that perfect job opening. Your resume has been chosen as one of the best by the hiring manager because you took the advice in the blog “How to Write a Strong Resume“. You can’t celebrate yet though! You still have to survive the interview.

With this advice from professional recruiters, acing the interview should be as easy as the ABC’s!

A – Anticipate key questions and have answers ready

B – Bring the information you will need to fill out an application (references, dates, Social Security Number, etc.)

C – Connect your past work experience to the present position you are interviewing for

D – Don’t criticize your previous employer; it will leave a bad impression

E – Eye contact with the interviewer shows confidence

F – Fill in all blanks on the application (except the salary blank)

G – Get there 15-20 minutes early; NEVER be late!

H – Handshake should be firm

I – Incorporate specific examples of your successes

J – Job responsibilities that you excelled at in your past experience should be discussed and related to the position you are interviewing for whenever possible

K – Know the directions to the building (drive a practice run if you must)

L – Legs should not be crossed; maintain open/receptive body language

M – Mail them a thank you letter afterwards. Make this letter short, professional, and to the point. Thank them for their time and that you look forward to the opportunity to become part of their organization

N – NEVER LIE! Answer all questions truthfully and frankly, but don’t “over answer” either

O – Opportunity is the focus…not money.  Be prepared to discuss the opportunity and how you can make a positive impact in the company.  Never focus on how much money you can make or ask about financial compensation during the interview

P – Professional attire is a must – even if you know the environment is casual, the interview is formal

Q – Quality of work and a strong understanding of the core skills you are interviewing for are quintessentially important.

R – Research the company and have questions prepared about it

S – Sit upright, look alert and interested at all times

T – Take a portfolio to take notes in (blue or black ink only) – refer back tothese during the question and answer portion of the interview.

U – Update your resume and have 3 references before you go on the interview

V – Vacation days should not be discussed but the value you bring to the company is a great focal point

W – Wear a watch; even if it is broken, it will give you the illusion of being organized and prompt

X –Xerox multiple copies of your resume in case you meet with more interviewers than you had expected

Y – Yes or no answers to questions are not good enough; providing a short explanation of your answers proves your knowledge and experience

Z – Zero in on what benefits you bring to the company

Now you know your ABC’s, next time you’ll interview with ease!

The pilgrims came to America and it was a whole new world for them. They were unfamiliar with the environment. They did not know which plants were poisonous and which plants could be used for medicinal purposes. They had yet to figure out how to farm the local fruits and vegetables. They were not used to the new variety of animals that they had to hunt and cook in this new world. There was no way they would have survived the winter without help from a knowledgeable third party.

Thankfully, Squanto, a Native American from a tribe nearby, taught the pilgrims how to adjust to their new surroundings and make the most of it. With his help, the pilgrims were able to survive the cruel winter and continue their existence on North America. As Americans, we owe our current lifestyle to Squanto and his fellow Indians for helping our ancestors survive. We now show our appreciation for all that we have on the national holiday, Thanksgiving.

I think many would agree that the world of IT is just as overwhelming and exciting and complicated as America felt to the pilgrims. They made the voyage to America because they knew there awaited a better life for them, but once they arrived, it seemed to be a dreadful scary unfamiliar place. All they needed in order to prosper was some survival consulting. Similarly, your company can benefit immensely from the advice of an IT consultant.

A few ways IT Consultants are like Squanto:

Those are just a few similarities between the help Squanto provided and the help IT Consultants provide. Just as Americans should be thankful for Squanto and his tribe for helping them survive a new environment, businesses should be thankful for their IT Consultants who guide them through complicated IT environments.

Happy Thanksgiving from the RSA Corp family to your family!

RSA Corp, a Managed IT Support and IT Staffing firm, recently held a company “play date” to encourage mingling among departments.

The “play date” was held at the park across the street from the RSA building in Webster, Texas. A few hours at the end of a Friday was set aside for all employees to enjoy a washer tournament, a horse shoe tournament, and a free throw shooting contest. The winners even won prizes!

In between games, employees got to know each other over snacks like hot dogs, chili dogs, chips and dip. Such simple activities resulted in a huge morale booster!

We spend an average of 2,080 hours at work every year. Company bonding, comfortable open communication, and morale boosting are important to companies like RSA Corp so that each and every hour is productive and more enjoyable. Getting to know your fellow coworkers and managers in company bonding or team building activities not only improves personal relationships, but it improves syngery between groups or departments. Companies that focus on company bonding and morale boosting not only see better teamwork and higher productivity among employees, but they experience a lower turnover rate because their employees are more satisfied with their job.

Mutual Trust

The economic downturn forced companies and their employees to take a hard look at their loyalty and trust in one another. Many companies made budget cuts and decreased salaries. Their employees had to trust that the company would restore their salaries when the economy allows them to, and employers had to trust that their employees would continue working for them so that they could survive the recession and then indeed restore their salaries. During such a stressful time, the businesses that are still holding on are those that kept a positive attitude in the workplace and worked on keeping a high morale among their loyal employees.

The RSA “play date” really showed employees that they are appreciated for their loyalty and hard work. It also helped employees get to know each other on a personal/social level so that they will no longer be “just another face in a cubicle down the hall”. The personal relationships that formed, or were strengthened, that day will not only make the workplace more enjoyable, but it will lead to easier communication in the future. It was great having all levels of employees, from the president/CEO (George Black, pictured below) and all the way down, enjoy the day of games and snacks together.

Visit the RSA Corp Facebook fan page to see more pictures from our “play date” and to see what else we are up to. RSA Corp is proof that a company that plays together, stays together!

You already know that you can get your e-mail by logging into a website on the Internet. What if you could also get word processing, spreadsheet or presentation software as well? Instead of installing Quickbooks and maintaining the database on a server located at your office, why not login to ClarityAccounting or Quickbooks Online and have access to your data from anywhere, anytime, within minutes? The ability to run a business with your entire server structure online is the embodiment of cloud computing. No more servers to install, manage, update or upgrade.

Leave behind the expensive software for which you purchase a license for each of your computers and instead pay for only what you need. One employee could work using the same software from any computer they choose without having to purchase and install the software on any of the computers. This saves potentially thousands of dollars in software licensing alone.

Server functions will become a thing of the past. File servers and backup systems are being replaced by companies like SugarSync, OpenDrive and Mozy. These services allow you to save to their server online as if it were a server in your office. If you need strictly backup services for your company, you could employ services from companies like CloudReplica. If your onsite server goes toes up, the operation will failover to the CloudReplica service. Once you have your server back up and running, you can replicate the entire system from CloudReplica to your new box.

Cloud computing is the future of IT. The technological advances in networking have closed the gap in long distance communications and makes real-time, offsite processing a reality.

There are many ways to find a new job.  Today we have all kinds of new technologically advanced tools to help us in our search for a new career home or consulting gig.  Online job boards, niche networking groups, LinkedIn, Facebook, and various blog sites can often prove to be very useful tools in marketing your skills and resume.  These are all great tools to utilize when searching for a job, but there is something very powerful about the relationship of a professional recruiter and their hiring managers.  Working with a specialized recruiter can give you a strong competitive edge over the competition; especially a recruiter with a strong relationship with a hiring manager that they have worked with for several years.

Hiring managers that have worked with a reliable recruiting/staffing partner for many years will often put a lot of trust that recruiter’s professional opinion.  They trust the proven fact that the well-known recruiter will only provide them with the right person for the job, for their team, and someone that really will add value to their overall hiring goals.  When your resume comes from a trusted partner (specialized recruiter) it can be much more attractive to many hiring managers when compared to random strangers sending in their resumes through an online web portal in a generic fashion.

When working with a recruiter, you need to understand that certain things are necessary to really have an open, productive relationship.  Basically, it all boils down to a simple phrase… “Help me…help you.”  Many times you must speak much more openly with a recruiter than you will with the hiring manager.  The recruiters job is to assist you in ensuring you put your best foot forward, assist you in how to talk with the hiring manager, ensure that you are properly prepared for what to expect in the interview, prepared for the type of people you will work with, and any good recruiter will be able to honestly let you know if he thinks you will fit into the environment technically and personally.  Here are 5 key things that you must be direct/honest with your recruiter about in order to allow him to help you properly.

1. What are your career goals?
Recruiters will know if a particular company offers career advancement, the expected timeline for growth potential, and how to best express your goals to the hiring manager in the interview.

2. Are you really ready to leave your current job and start a new one?
Sometimes people would like to interview to see if they can really get that “deal of a lifetime” offer they can’t refuse, and other times people really do need to find a new position that better fits with their career goals.  Your motivation for looking at a new position are very important and the multitude of factors related to your ability to start a new job are equally important.  Some things to keep in mind and talk with your recruiter about include: Do you have a vacation planned soon? Do you receive an annual bonus? How much vacation time to you have now? Can you start a new position in 2 weeks? How will you handle a counter-offer from your current employer?  These are all things that you need to discuss with your recruiter to work through how they will be handled when a new job is offered.

3. What salary/compensation package are you prepared to accept?
This information is just as critical as what you are currently making for many reasons.  Many times, the recruiter will be negotiating on your behalf with the hiring manager/company.   If you tell me you MUST have a $120,000 base salary to accept the position then that is what I will do for you.  I will negotiate your compensation to the level you tell me you must have.  But if in reality you WOULD have accepted $100,000 as a base salary, but I didn’t know that…you could miss out on your dream job simply because you weren’t honest with your Recruiter.  We will work as a team on the best way to present your salary needs to the hiring manager if it comes up during your interview to ensure we are able to meet your goals.  This goes for your current compensation level as well.  This information will be critical at offer stage with the company and will provide your recruiter with the vital information to negotiate as best as he can on your behalf.  It benefits you and the recruiter to get you the best compensation package possible, so be sure you are open and honest about what you need, want, and will accept.

4. Will you consider working outside of the city or relocating to a new state?
When you tell your recruiter you must find a local position, only that is what they will do…focus only on telling you about local opportunities.  Really think this through though because if there is a chance you would consider moving back to your home-state, or really have always thought about trying a different city, it would benefit you to tell your recruiter this.  There could be a job opportunity with a company willing to offer a relocation package to move you there.  If your recruiter doesn’t know it would interest you…why would they tell you about it?

5. Do you have other interviews going on and how far into the process are you?
This is very important for many reasons.  If you have had three interviews with XYZ Company and are expecting an offer by the end of the week, you really need to tell your recruiter this.  The main reason is so that they can tell their hiring manager if you are “the one” they want to hire they better make it happen FAST or they will lose you to the competing company.  This could be the difference between a hiring manager emailing a document to HR to get signed (taking a couple days) or walking it down there personally and getting it done THAT day.

Obviously these are things that you will only want to share with a trusted recruiter that you feel confident has your career interests as his first priority.  Being open and honest with your recruiter really can make or break the deal for you…and in the end, you are the one that is the most important player here as it is your career on the line.  If you help us, help you…the experience can really enhance your career search and ultimately provide a smooth career transition to your new position.

Scenario 1

• Good Idea – Calling us when your computer is down
• Bad Idea – Calling a shrink when your computer is down

Scenario 2

Scenario 3

Scenario 4

Scenario 5

• Bad Idea – Hiring just ANY recruiter to quickly fill your IT openings
  

Scenario 2

Scenario 3

Scenario 4

Scenario 6

• Good Idea – Keeping the manual that helped you install your software
• Bad Idea – Keeping tech guy Emanuel who helped you install your software

Scenario 7

• Good Idea – Choosing RSA Corp for all your Managed IT Services and IT Staffing needs

• Bad Idea – Choosing anyone else!!!!

Are you the right candidate for the job…and if you are…does your resume clearly show that?

What makes a person stand out on paper as having all the right skills and look like they have all that it takes to be “the one”?  Starting your job search with a great resume can definitely make or break your chances of being invited for an interview.  Without the interview, there’s no chance of getting the job offer, so it all really starts with the resume you are using to represent your skills and background.

There are several key things to remember when organizing and preparing a new resume that will increase your rate of success. These key things have changed over the years.

The days of a 1 page resume are over.  Too much technology and too many multi-functional job titles make it nearly impossible for a technology professional to keep his/her resume to 1 page.  Trying to do so will ultimately hurt your chances when looking for a job.  At the same time though, the long 10+ page resumes that tell your whole life story have also started being tossed in the trash without a second glance.  I’ve actually had a hiring manager tell me if I send him a resume over 4 pages long that he is going to delete it and move on to the next person.  There is definitely a fine line between a good resume and a great one.

Let’s go over the outline of a standard professional resume by today’s standards:

1. Name and contact info – this should include your full legal name, 2 contact phone numbers, and your email address.  If a hiring manager can’t get a hold of you when they need to talk with you, they will just move on to the next person.

2. Summary – Brief (1 to 2 paragraphs) intro that offers an overview of your professional experience and skills. Don’t include every single thing you have EVER done in this summary.  Try to focus this section on your most recent technical skills you’ve achieved in the last couple years as they relate to the job you are seeking.

3. Skills – This section is (in my opinion) optional.  If you clearly and properly explain your skills, as they relate to each job title, in your “Experience Details” section as I recommend below, then you really don’t need this extra skills list. Some people like to have it and I don’t really think it matters either way, so I’ll leave that decision up to you.  Just be aware that you NEVER want to include skills anywhere in your resume that you can’t actually discuss in a professional interview setting.

4. Experience Details – This is where you need to list your truly detailed experience chronologically by company beginning with your most recent position.  It is important to include the dates of employment, company name, and your actual job title.  If you prefer to keep your current employer confidential, it is typically acceptable to list the industry you work in and disclose your current employer later in the process.

Write a detailed description of your experience under each company.  You must include what technology you worked with and in what way you worked with it specifically.  I can’t stress this enough.  So many people list their skills in a “Skills Summary” section and then never mention them again in their detailed experience section under the company where they worked with these skills.  You will greatly improve your chances of an interview if the hiring manager or recruiter can clearly see where you used your technical skills and to what depth you used them.  Expect to have 8-10 bullet points under each company, or each job title if you have been with a company many years and grew through the ranks in that company to higher level positions.

Do not lie, exaggerate, or make up things on your resume.  Expect an interviewing manager to ask you about all the skills you have and projects you detailed on your resume.  If you can’t speak to the experience/skills you listed then you should reconsider having that skill listed in your resume at all.  Providing 8-10 bullet points per job title should be sufficient to accurately describe your job function and skills/technology used.

5. Education – This is pretty self explanatory.  College you attended, degree you earned, and any specialized industry relevant certifications you have obtained.  If you do not have a college degree it is still recommended to list any college you have attended and what you were pursuing.  It is recommended that you list any social/academic organizations under your Education section such as: fraternities, sororities, clubs, sports, etc…  These things may not be a direct link to your technical skills, but they could influence a hiring decision if the manager happens to be a member of the same organization.

6. References – This section is also optional but my suggestion is you either provide references on your resume or don’t list the section at all.  It is pointless to write “upon request” under a References section.  Any manager will assume you can provide references, so either list them on the resume or leave this section off all together.

Some people have few sections that are not necessary or not properly utilized.  I would leave out any section related to Personal Hobbies or Lifestyle Choices.  It is not useful to know you like horseback riding at sunset, or enjoy hiking in the Himalayas.  It is not appropriate to list things about your personal life on your resume including marital status, kids, dogs, birds, religion, ethnicity, etc…  I have seen ALL these things listed on resumes before (seriously…not kidding), and it baffles me every time.

This can hopefully serve as a guideline to what a resume should/should not be.  It doesn’t take a resume writing service to develop a professional resume, and it shouldn’t take a literary scholar to properly write down your core skills/experience.  Just take the time to think through what you want your resume to say about you, follow these guidelines, and you will be able to develop a concise professional resume that will position you for success in your search for a new career home.

Hurricane season is here and we are seeing more and more hurricane preparedness information; from updating home insurance, collecting materials and supplies, to planning for evacuation. There is so much available information on how to protect your family and home, that if a hurricane does tear through your area, knock on wood, you have no excuse not to be prepared. But what happens to your business? Information on how to protect your business during the hurricane season is not as easily accessible, but it is just as important.

Disaster Recovery planning can be vital to companies, especially here in Houston, during the hurricane seasons. It may be too late to protect your data and other assets if you wait until the “rain drops [start] falling on your head”, as B.J. Thomas would say. Are you part of the 65% of small to medium businesses that does not have a disaster recovery plan in place? If you are, are you also aware that according to research by the University of Texas, only six percent of companies survive a catastrophic data loss, while 43% never reopen and 51% close within two years? Those odds are not very reassuring.

Most companies are still recovering from budget cuts and do not see the value in investing in disaster recovery. We can understand their point of view. Nobody wants to pay for something they won’t use. But how can you be sure you won’t need it? Like insurance, a solid disaster recovery plan is a good value even if you never need it. But it’s priceless if you do!

So what is the next excuse that we’ve come across as to why companies do not invest in proper disaster recovery planning? Our favorite excuses include:

• “My IT guy says our data is backed up, so I don’t worry.”
• “Our IT department is doing the best they can and we do not have time to learn and implement a new process.”
• “I know we should, but we can’t afford what our IT guy says we need to do.”
• “I’ve talked to the “experts” and it all seems so complicated.”

George Black, President and CEO here at RSA Corp, treats the company like a family member. There is no way he would just take somebody’s word for something this important. Running a business is a lot of work, and it would be devastating to watch it all get washed away because a short cut was taken. RSA Corp, a Managed IT Service provider, has witnessed many companies turning to us once they get themselves in the middle of a sticky situation. Of course we help them get back on track, but that takes more time and money than a preemptive strike!

We recommend that you, as a business owner, do your homework or partner with an IT company that has. RSA Corp offers our clients a range of Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery planning and implementation services so they have one less thing to worry about. Wouldn’t it help you to have experts handle the difficult stuff?

During this hurricane season, RSA Corp’s clients will be singing…

“Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Cryin’s not for me
‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothin’s worryin’ me”

Hear the entire song so you can sing along when you have your disaster recovery plan in place: “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head“

Episode #18 – Joan Kreidle, Project Manager at RSA Corp, explains how Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps to cut costs by streamlining business processes through the management of internal and external resources.

Episode #16 – Holly Gunn, Marketing Manager at RSA Corp, reminds businesses of the importance of social media, not just for finding prospects, but for building your brand, driving website traffic, and establishing and nurturing business relationships.

Episode #15 – Jeremy Ross, Services Manager at RSA Corp, discusses how successful businesses are properly supported by technology. He explains how to reduce support and hardware costs, what the benefits are from leveraging software as a service, and how businesses can utilize technology to increase productivity.

Specialty healthcare management service companies, such as imaging, hospice, and surgicare clinics, aim to reduce the cost of health care while improving the quality of care.  However, garnering referral relationships with physicians is highly competitive.  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems serve an increasingly important function to these emerging healthcare businesses.

How can they best leverage the benefits of CRM?

The healthcare industry is currently shifting toward this more patient-centric delivery model. While large hospitals and medical centers are trying to follow this trend, these new specialty clinics have certain advantages over the hospitals that appear to be quite attractive to patients. Specialty clinics often provide high quality of care for less overall cost because of efficiencies and economy of scale.

Specialty healthcare management service companies, which also include emergicare, endoscopy, oncology, sleep centers, and other laboratory services, operate from smaller clinics that are in close proximity to their patients’ homes and offices. Not only do these clinics reduce patients’ travel time, but they offer the same high quality care of a large hospital by combining physicians, business administration, diagnostic services and medical billing with the latest technologies.

Furthermore, these specialty healthcare businesses allow physicians greater access to the data generated from these services, and thus improves the quality of care for the patients.  The specialty healthcare management service companies strive to help physicians diagnose and treat patients’ conditions faster while providing a higher standard of care with a more direct hands-on approach.  Offering these services at nearby clinics decreases confusion, minimizes wait time and frustration for both the patient and the physician and can significantly improve the patient’s attitude toward their treatment.  Moreover, through competition, they are able to offer these services at lower costs, benefiting both insurance carriers and patients.

As specialty clinics grow, they add sales and marketing staff who reach out to more and more physicians. This growth, and the challenges associated with growth, is generally what leads companies to need a CRM system.  CRM systems’ functionality includes sales lead management, customer interaction management and customer data management.

CRM systems, once integrated, typically provide a quick return on investment (ROI) and help this new breed of healthcare service company, whether they have a small or large sales force, to effectively develop, manage and measure their sales force and marketing strategies in order to increase sales.  CRM systems quickly generate customer and lead lists, qualify leads, and manage marketing campaigns, marketing information and direct mail and email.  Additionally, CRM systems provide the capability to integrate into the company’s financials and provide an excellent platform for business analytics, executive decision management and business intelligence.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM™ and Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager™ provide an excellent platform to meet the challenges associated with a growing Healthcare Management Services Company.  Its easy integration, with Microsoft Exchange™, Microsoft Outlook™ and Internet ready PDAs such as the iPhone™ or Blackberry™, makes it an excellent product for these companies to effectively manage and grow their businesses.  Microsoft has designed the Dynamics CRM™ products to be easy to use, easy to customize and very price competitive.  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM™ solution can be delivered in a variety of ways such as a hosted solution, direct ownership or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Episode #4 – Holly Gunn, Marketing Manager at RSA Corp, discusses the importance of showing existing clients that they are valued and appreciated. She also shares how RSA Corp shows their client appreciation through direct mail, social media and free giveaways.

Episode #1 – Holly Gunn, marketing manager at RSA Corp, introduces the history of the company and talks about what makes it different from other staffing firms and IT service providers. She also discuss future trends for the technology, small business and staffing industries.

Business continuity is the investment made by a business to be proactive in avoiding the risks associated with a disaster. Typically, this investment is an operating expense that serves as an insurance policy on an ongoing basis.

Disaster recovery is the plan associated with the reaction that follows a catastrophic event that disrupts the productivity of a business. This type of investment is more difficult to manage because it’s a “in the event of” plan that can easily fall through the cracks if not kept up with.

The two most important aspects of a DR plan involve sound, comprehensive planning and regular testing intervals that ensure the overall effectiveness of the plan. The most effective strategy is to give ample attention to both – mitigate risks as much as possible and have a solid plan to address the unforeseen.

Why is it so important to prepare for disaster now when Hurricane season is months away?

Given the geographic area that we live in, hurricanes stay top-of-mind when businesses think of a “disaster.” The truth of the matter is, several events occur each year within the walls of a business that could potentially serve as a disaster:

o Loss of mission critical data

o Power or hardware failures

o Disgruntled employees

o The list goes on…

The most important question to ask is whether or not your business can survive in the event of the unknown – and not knowing the answer to that question is just as dangerous.

Business continuity is too expensive for SMBs. What options do I have?

This is a common misperception among small to mid-sized businesses for a variety of reasons. The first is the lack of knowledge in terms of what options are available. The second is the possible impact on the business by failing to implement a proper plan.

Technology has evolved over the years to the point that what was once extremely expensive to purchase and manage is now far more simplified and cost-effective. In addition, several of the products and services associated with BC and DR have become commoditized, which drives down cost and creates a more affordable solution set for business owners.

Learn more about these cost-effective solutions in other blog articles.

Colocation – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Business Must Go On…DR & Colocation

Online backup solutions – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Knock, Knock. Who’s There? Your Data

Email Continuity – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Can your Email Server Weather the Storm?

Most companies lack good visibility into their spending.  Visibility into your spending gives your company a competitive edge by providing insight on how to manage and maximize cash flow, manage and forecast business costs, and monitor supplier performance. Studies show that only 4% of companies have a real-time look into their spending, and 69% have limited to no visibility.

Best-in-class companies utilize sound invoices and payment principles to define…

· Invoice handling and payment process
· The automation levels and integration of systems
· The costs and cycle time to process invoices
· The visibility or access to the invoice and payment data

The primary culprit is the intensive paperwork and labor invoice processing companies face to ensure an invoice is recorded accurately, approved and paid in a timely manner.  Take an in-depth look at invoice processing to reduce the manual processing of handling the paper invoice.  Whether the company is small or large, significant improvement within the invoice process is evident through an electronic paperless solution.

Implementing an electronic paperless solution provides significant process improvements and monetary savings.

Several benefits include:

· Reduced time to post to the general ledger
· More timely recognition of costs
· A lower internal cost to process and approve invoices
· Recorded audit trail to identify billing errors, fraud and abuse

The more the invoice cycle time is minimized, the quicker the company can respond to understanding spending trends and managing the cash flow of the business.  Knowing and having real-time spending visibility is one attribute to sound money management of the business.  It is a must have in a 24/7 business world to gain the upper edge with competitors.

A reactive approach to IT support can be costly and time-consuming. This is especially true for SMBs, which don’t usually have the resources to employ a full-time IT resource or spend a lot of money outsourcing IT. When there is a problem, the costs associated with solving IT issues can spiral out of control.

So…what are the actual costs of managing and maintaining your IT?

Think about…
• The salary of a full-time IT professional
• Capital investment in network monitoring tools
• Valuable time wasted when hassling with IT issues
• Paying overpriced break-fix support costs
• Lost productivity due to network downtime (Basic formula: Net income / 250 yearly productive days = Cost of downtime per day)

What if you had more time to focus on your business with peace of mind that your technology is working…for less than it costs to do it yourself? Managed IT support helps companies maintain predictable IT costs by offering fixed pricing for ongoing support of the systems that businesses need to remain productive – desktops, servers, email.

How Managed IT Support Reduces IT Costs, and How to Restore Peace of Mind

1.Rather than employ a full-time IT employee to provide the skills and resources of just one person, businesses can leverage managed IT support and gain access to a team of professionals certified in many different technologies. Also, the hidden costs of hiring someone full-time can equate to almost double the employee’s salary.

2.Network monitoring tools minimize downtime by recognizing issues before they become problems. When issues escalate without proper attention is when they become costly. With managed IT support, you benefit from the tools as part of the service and eliminate the capital investment.

3.A fully functional help desk allows end users to report problems and have them resolved as they happen. This eliminates valuable time spent troubleshooting issues and allows you to focus your efforts on what matters most…your business.

4.Calling an IT technician when problems arise results in paying high premiums for service. Managed services are available for a fixed, monthly price, which helps SMBs maintain predictable IT spend.

5.When your network goes down, revenue-generating activities come to a halt. Many studies illustrate the effects of downtime on small business. For long-term downtime, The University of Texas has found that only 6% of companies survive a catastrophic data loss, and Gartner estimates that only 35% of SMBs have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. With someone managing and monitoring your technology, your infrastructure is inherently stronger. Also, your provider should offer affordable disaster recovery options.

Have you ever heard the song, “If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band?” For some reason, this theme plays in my head but the lyrics are, “If you’re gonna do an upgrade, you’re gonna wanna do it now.”

I know the song could use some work, but the content couldn’t be more true. If you are thinking about or need to do a network refresh, this is the time to do it. Network hardware and software are no different than everything else on the market these days. If you have the capital, it’s a buyer’s market.

Hardware vendors and software vendors are offering extremely aggressive pricing to potential buyers and are willing to negotiate. We have seen technology upgrade and projects range anywhere from 10% – 40% in reduced cost for projects of similar size and scope from the year prior.

Over the last few months, we have been able to offer some nice upgrades within the virtualization world for clients that would not have been able to afford high availability or redundant solutions in the past. For the same expense this year, we are able to drastically harden their environments and make leaps in disaster recovery planning.

These savings can bring tremendous added value to a business or simply help save money. Either way, if you are kicking tires or in dire straits…now is the time to drop that coin.

With the flood of people flocking to Twitter these days, it can be daunting to try and figure out who’s worth following and who isn’t. Here is my list of 25 Houston business tweeple that inspire, bring laughter, have influence and are just plain cool (in no particular order).

1. @astro_mike – Mike Massimino
NASA astronaut, mission specialist for STS-125

2. @drrbradley – Dr. Richard Bradley
Emergency physician with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

3. @BillWhiteforTX – Mayor Bill White
Son of San Antonio schoolteachers. Husband, father. Successful businessman. Mayor of Houston, winner in Profile in Courage Award. Candidate for U.S. Senate.

4. @baldheretic – Jay Lee
Helpline columnist for the Houston Chronicle, creator and host of Technology Bytes. Folk musician and shameless shutterbug.

5. @marc1919 – Marc Nathan
Web 2.0 Angel Investor & Technology Startup Incubator. Houston Technology Center.

6. @waterdesign – Heather Loftiss
Branding Goddess, designer lady, mom, wife/business partner, incoming AAF-H Branding Czar, gardener and photographer. Isn’t that enough?

7. @growth_coach – Jared Polak
I’m passionate about helping my community achieve success and balance in their lives

8. @Bukowsky – Jeff Flowers
To Build a Better World, You Must Start in Your Own Community.Web Developer. Graphic Designer. Social Media Guru.

9. @TheMoleskin – Kelsey Ruger
Senior-level software architect, web and UI designer. Passionate about creative thinking, training and employee development. VP at Pop Labs

10. @Jaseone – Jason Bainbridge
Geek, wanna be photographer, cyclist, beer & coffee lover! IT guy.

11.@JennTex – Jennifer Texada
Communications Program Manager at M. D. Anderson focusing on Social Media and stuff like that.

12. @she_eats – Katharine Shilcutt
Web editor for the Houston Press. Lover of food and beer. Probably of you, too.

13. @ericaogrady – Erica O’Grady
CXO Peanut Butter Media

14. @CoffeeGroundz – JR Cohen
I am a strong cup of coffee and by night I am a Belgium beer. We are your local cheers! #SupportLocal #GrowTogether

15. @lmayes – Laura Mayes
Who doesn’t want to write in 140 characters? Also wrote the upcoming book Kirtsy Takes a Bow (October 2009) And I helped found Kirtsy.com. Hooray! Etc.

16. @gracerodriguez – Grace Rodriguez
Ayn brand | social media consultant . community builder . creative . writer . speaker . activist . advocate | into : art . film . music . design . strategery

17. @imelda – Imelda
Wife, mom, computer geek from houston, texas who loves to take photos!

18. @TheBloggess – Jenny
Good Mom/Bad Mom blogger for Houston Chronicle

19. @Freebies4Mom – Heather
I blog at Freebies4Mom.com to help everyone save money with freebies, coupons, giveaways, sweepstakes, and money-saving tips

20. @Cosmopolitician – Monica Danna
Event planner + PR gal + social media maniac + houston fanatic + design lover + dance freak

21. @dsilverman – Dwight Silverman
Techblogger, computer columnist, blog editor @ Houston Chronicle | chron.com. Co-host of Technology Bytes radio show. Computer book author.

22. @MistyKhan – Misty Khan
Mommy, wife, family girl. Outlook, sales, & marketing consultant. entrepreneur, runner, wine lover, dog lover. Jewish Conservative #TCOT

23. @eschipul – Ed Schipul
Some guy from Houston who does web stuff with a bunch of other web people. Schipul Web Marketing.

24. @EstherSteinfeld – Blinds.com PR
PR gal, NotAllCEOsAreJerks.com Founder, Correspondent for The Business Makers Show, lover of Interior Design, buttermilk biscuits, cockapoos, & dance

25. @alangham – Arthur Langham
Programmer, Ironman finisher, Desert Storm veteran, font snob, and grammar nazi.

**Those of us tweeting from RSA Corp
@RSABoss – CEO
@scsweeney – COO
@Jrockross – Managed Services Manager
@scottgondesen – Client Relations Director
@HollystarPR – Marketing Manager

I couldn’t possibly include everyone that’s wonderful, so…who are your favs?

Most businesses rely on 5-10 core technology vendors to keep business running smoothly. Any miscues in communication or coordination between vendors can result in downtime, wasted efforts and loss of productivity. This is a common occurrence among SMBs because the person managing vendors is usually juggling day-to-day operations and lacks the necessary time to proactively respond to changes and updates.

One of the greatest challenges associated with maintaining a smooth-running business network is organizing and managing the various vendors involved. The office manager, operations director or IT manager must have:
•A complex understanding regarding from the top-down of the business network to effectively manage this process
•Proper coordination of the inner-workings of your network as it pertains to your vendors
•Time to stay up-to-date with upcoming expirations and/or investigate cost-effective alternatives

Without these key elements in place, the results can prove to be problematic. The player in the process that truly stands to lose anything substantial in the short-term is your business. The ideal situation is to have a single point of contact or “one neck to choke.”

With one point of contact, the decision makers in your company can work more efficiently and not spend time putting out fires in areas they are not equipped to handle. Your point of contact must have specific knowledge pertaining to your business and how it leverages each vendor to make money. Whether the vendor is a website hosting company, Internet service provider (ISP), telecommunications supplier or software application vendor, the person managing your vendor relationships must fully understand how each of these pieces of the puzzle work together to create the proper working environment for your business.

The best candidate for this role is the IT Manager or your IT services provider. For the small to medium-sized businesses, having a full-time IT Manager is sometimes not a viable option. If you partner with an IT service provider for your day-to-day technology support, your service levels should include a true vendor management system as a core component. Rather than another vendor for you to manage, your service provider should take ownership of this responsibility and manage the vendors on your behalf.

Proper vendor management minimizes downtime, reduces accelerated costs and ensures proper service level agreements. Your employees can have more time to focus on the core business functions geared towards generating revenue. They will also avoid crises associated with attempting to support something they are underqualified to work on and that distracts them from their primary responsibilities within your business.

The bigger question: Can you really afford to not have vendor management in place?

Without access to your business’s mission critical data, productivity as a whole could come to a screeching halt.

For years, businesses have relied on tape backups to secure their primary data repository. While the technology associated with these types of solutions continues to become more refined, one aspect of this process still leaves a business vulnerable – human error.

We can invest tons of money to secure the latest and greatest hardware and software to protect our data. However, without the commitment of one or more key employees to mange the process of changing tapes, reviewing logs and initiating support as needed, one mistake will render this effort useless.

To counter these measures, IT solution providers have introduced advancements in how data is encrypted, compressed and secured. With the presence of cost-effective and increased bandwidth capabilities, the industry has evolved and offsite backup solutions are now more viable then ever.

Offsite backup technology has made great strides to effectively secure your data online (offsite) at a price that is easy to justify.

If you haven’t considered an offsite backup solution within the last 12 months, it is probably time to revisit the subject. At RSA Corp, we bundle disaster recovery (including offsite backup) into our managed IT support service. However, there are backup solution providers worth checking out.

Here are some key factors to consider when looking at what an offsite backup can bring to the table:

• Government-sanctioned AES encryption
• Automated, unattended backups with status updates via email notification
• Real-time file restoration capabilities
• Remote restoration capabilities for both single file and “bare bones” restores
• Back up multiple platforms on one network, i.e. Windows, Linux,

When you add up the value associated with these key features and combine it with the fact that this type of solution costs pennies per gigabyte, it truly builds the case for incorporating some form of an offsite backup solution in to your disaster recovery planning. The cost is negligible, and the reward far outweighs the risk. It’s a no-brainer.

I would love to hear your story about how offsite backup saved your business.

It’s that time of year again…hurricane season is upon us. With the effects of Hurricane Ike still fresh in Houston’s memory, what are the lessons learned when it comes to securing the integrity of your business?

While history continues to repeat itself, a disaster’s long-term effects on a business can be substantial. Consider the following business downtime statistics:
• Only 6% of companies survive a catastrophic data loss, while 43% never reopen, and 51% close within two years
• Only 35% of small and medium businesses have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place
• International Data Corp estimates that companies lose an average of $84,000 for every hour of downtime.
• According to Strategic Research, the cost of downtime is estimated at close to $90,000 per hour
• The survival rate for companies without a disaster recovery plan is less than 10%

The cold, hard facts associated with these statistics are difficult to believe.

FACT: Today, most businesses do not have a comprehensive DR plan
FACT: The costs associated with downtime are substantial
FACT: The survival rate for businesses hit by a disaster is slim-to-none

While these statistics are real, the implications behind them are even more sobering. Businesses are left vulnerable due to poor planning, lackluster follow up, and a genuine lack of understanding in terms of how to overcome these challenges. How does this continue to be the case?

1. Many businesses are not aware of the options
2. If a DR plan is in place, it has not been tested or kept up-to-date
3. The planning associated with the DR plan is not comprehensive

In the coming weeks we will examine several aspects of a well thought-out disaster recovery (DR) plan, featuring an in-depth look at what processes to consider and what options are available.

Are you working on a Zombie computer? If you are, you might not know it. Today, so many variants of malicious software (malware) are present on the Web, one can hardly keep up.

Trojans, viruses, spyware, hijackers, rootkits, backdoors, worms, crimeware…..have you had enough yet? I wouldn’t be surprised if a new variant of each of these was just created in the amount of time that it took to read this. Many of them are extremely difficult to detect once they infect a computer.

Most of us are familiar with what can happen to a personal computer once a virus infects it. However, we often don’t stop and think about the far-reaching implications that malware can have on your business and its ability to make money, or more importantly, the subsequent cost associated with removing it.

Businesses rely heavily on the speed and efficiency of the Internet, whether as a core function of their delivery model or to accomplish daily processes. Businesses can no longer turn a blind eye to the advancements that have come as a result of the Internet, which is becoming bigger, faster and stronger.

Typically, a business will dive right into the use of the Internet to drive processes, but often doesn’t fully consider the risks associated with leveraging it within the workplace. As you open your business to the vast World Wide Web, you increase your risk and responsibility.

How are you handling these ever-present threats against your network security?

Web-based threats and email viruses are evolving as quickly as the counter-intuitive measures used to prevent them. Most are surprised to find out that 36% of all Internet-related intrusions exist in the form of Web advertisements, news & media and search engines/portals. It’s no longer just email, adult and gambling sites that serve as hosts to these forms of malware.

What ultimately comes of this is a dynamic form of risk that serves as a moving target for your business. The amount of time and consideration required to properly safeguard an organization from such risk must be every bit as dynamic.

Traditional means of email and Web security typically involve an investment in a piece of hardware and the employment of a vendor or staff member to manage the hardware. Yet, a business could still experience email spam, virus disruptions or the loss of pertinant email mistaken as a possible threat.

Today’s level of prevention has evolved beyond this approach. Service providers can manage the process of detecting, preventing and securing a business from email and Web threats. In fact, managed services offer a more robust level of prevention, attacking disruptions outside the network perimeter without the need for hardware or software installation. This level of service is more complex than any one organization would be willing or able to invest in.

Web and email security as a service deploys several layers of prevention above and beyond the standards associated with industry best practices (see figure below). Threats are neutralized at the network perimeter before they can pass through the enterprise firewall and compromise users. Traditional hardware security measures operate within the firewall and are unable to provide the same protection. Read about RSA Corp TOTAL DEFENSE powered by MX Logic™.

In addition to the enhanced level of security, managed security services allow you to:
• Reduce overall costs associated hardware maintenance and personnel time
• Eliminate hardware or software integration
• Eliminate out-of-pocket maintenance fees
• Reduce liability
• Increase productivity
• Realize more efficient bandwidth utilization and lower storage costs
• Reduce data management responsibilities
• Protect your business at the perimeter level

All things considered, the Internet has emerged as an essential part of how business gets done. Along with the good comes the bad. The presence of malware continues to plague the efforts of many. Recognizing that, organizations should regularly review what measures are being used to prevent such disruptions in their business and compare those measures to the pace at which the threats are continuously evolving. The threats that exist are very real and the damage that they cause is substantial.

What experiences have you had with email or web-based threats that affected your business?

Database management continues to be a challenge for most organizations. The drivers associated with this challenge can be contributed to many factors:
 Mergers & acquisitions
 Compliance regulations
 Exponential growth
 Increasing challenges associated with forecasting market behavior as business builds a strategy to remain competitive

Whatever the motivational factors, having the ability to read and react at a moment’s notice is driving the pace of business. As such, businesses are faced with an important question:

Do I have end-to-end visibility into critical business functions?

If your business is like the majority of organizations within the current market, my guess is that there’s substantial room for improvement. A Business Intelligence (BI) application module bolts on to an existing application stack and expands horizontally across the enterprise. It integrates otherwise limited data silos to maximize the analysis, interpretation and presentation of business information.

BI is the solution set designed to address this key obstacle, which is limiting the full potential of business growth.

Two key factors to consider
From an executive perspective, the value of a BI solution is significant when you consider the end-to-end visibility and manageability gained from access to important business data for decision-making and multi-dimensional analysis.

Having the ability to capture information about how activities in various business units affect one another is key to developing a strategy that establishes value. In addition, bypassing data conversion results in faster answers and more efficient business activity.

BI allows organizations to strategically leverage data warehouses at a level that provides key decision makers with the necessary information needed to drive business processes.

Cost reduction is another valuable benefit associated with business intelligence. Having the ability to consolidate otherwise redundant infrastructure resources can have a clear impact on a company’s financial resources.

Consider the costs associated with infrastructure management and other IT-related overhead expenditures, as well as the benefits of data reuse. All things considered, through the proper use of BI applications, there is a clear opportunity to:
 Significantly reduce current and future operating costs
 Avoid complexities associated with data quality
 Bring value to the bottom line

Start managing data rather than it managing you
As you look to bridge the gap between where you are today and where you would like to be in terms of visibility into critical business functions, much time and consideration must be given to the development of a strategy that makes sense for your organization.

As you develop your strategy, it’s critical to involve owners, managers and users of each type of data and application in regularly-scheduled discussions. With their input and approvals, your organization will be in a better position to properly leverage your data warehouse, instead of it managing you.

As we push through into 2009, businesses will be forced to run lean and mean. During uncertain economic times like these, competitive advantage stems from the ability to anticipate and respond to change quickly and intelligently. This level of response requires organizations to have implemented metrics that allow for decision makers to have access to accurate and dependable data from their enterprise-wide operations.

However, some companies may be in a precarious situation if their business processes have become more complex over time and are misaligned with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Companies may find themselves in a situation that warrants the question, “Is it time to optimize our current ERP to align with our current processes?”

Alternatively, some companies may find their ERP system is the cause of some misalignment in operations or is not utilizing its full capabilities. In this case, remediation is necessary to get things back on track.

Ask anyone who has been through an extensive ERP implementation, and they will hands-down agree that it’s an exhausting, financially intensive and disrupting exercise to avoid repeating at all costs. This level of disruption and financial commitment leaves companies an easy choice to make when it comes to optimizing or remediating their current ERP system over implementing a new system.

Remediation: Determining Root Causes of Current Failures
For remediation to be successful, businesses need to look deeper into operations than just information technology. IT is still sometimes viewed as a stand-alone activity used to support business processes. In fact, IT is a service used as any other tool, process or program to enable business.

Businesses should not proceed with a go-forward plan to remediate their ERP until the reasons and root causes for the current failures and breakdowns are fully understood. Determining root cause will be crucial for the remediation plan. The root effects depicted by asset vulnerabilities will have a many-to-one relationship to root cause. If the effects have a one-to-one relationship to the alleged root cause, this indicates that you have not determined the true root cause.

Generally, finding a one-to-one relationship exists when silo-structured organizations only look at the vulnerabilities in their silo. This can also occur when IT attempts to remediate without the input or assistance of the other business units. All businesses today, in both the public and private sectors, are interdependent with the other areas of that business.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Businesses engaged in ERP remediation must be cognizant to avoid failures. Necessary steps to dodge possible pitfalls include:

• Behavioral change. The management team must hold everyone, including themselves, accountable and compliant to the necessary behavioral changes that stem from the assessments. For example, if the remediation effort determines that executives must change passwords every quarter, then the executive team must abide by this and change passwords every quarter.
• Assignment of a truly cross-functional, expert team from both the technology and business areas. All team members must be fully committed to the activity without pressures from other areas, as this resolution is highly complex. The team will have a different set of ERP subject matter experts (SME) members, and a few members will be required to participate from the beginning of the remediation to the end.

o It’s also a good idea to comprise the functional and technical team of experts from outside the company with experience remediating ERP systems. This allows for a true, unbiased assessment and reporting of the actual scope of vulnerabilities to senior management.
o Failure to assign a dedicated team to accurately address the amount of time necessary to develop, gain approval, train and roll out policy, standards, practices and procedures will ultimately lead to a great waste of time, energy and money.

Once a company has assessed both the business drivers and the technical drivers for a remediation, it can calculate the ROI surrounding a variety of benefits from the remediation. These benefits can include:

• Reduction in server outages
• Reduction in bandwidth use
• Reduction in database management table repairs
• Higher staff productivity working on production-type activities
• Ability to handle additional applications without increasing bandwidth or server capacity
• Compliancy - SOX, HIPAA and COSO are just a few of the standard-based compliancy drivers that businesses must address moving forward.

Finally, remember you cannot do it alone. A successful remediation requires the full support of all stakeholders and constituencies working together for a shared goal. The time needed to conduct a remediation project of the size and scope indicated by the initial assessment is usually estimated at 30 to 48 months. Compare this to the 18+ months it takes to implement a new ERP system.

The time, money and effort spent will result in more integrated business processes and cleaner data for more informed decision making. Ultimately, optimized business technology allows companies to win market share while competitors struggle to keep heads above water.

Businesses are always looking for alternative ways to cut costs, increase value and streamline operations without disrupting output of future growth. Traditional cost-cutting strategies such as canceling or postponing projects and reducing headcount can offer immediate relief of financial obligations associated with budget. However, these methods often fail to ultimately generate quantifiable value.

Here’s a list of five business technology trends designed to extend cost-cutting solutions, as well as true business value:

1. Consolidate and Virtualize Your Server Environment

The technology associated with virtualization has been around for many years. Only recently has it emerged as a viable option designed to improve information security, business continuity and hardware utilization.

Benefits associated with implementing a virtual server environment are…
•Reduce the need to purchase additional hardware (servers)
•Eliminate the hassle of building and provisioning new servers
•Reduce the amount (and costs!) of power, cooling and space
•Improve recovery time for unplanned network outages

Virtualizing your server environment presents a number of opportunities for driving capital and operational efficiencies for any organization.

2.Repurpose or Retire Old or Underutilized Hardware

Revisit your list of paused IT initiatives and consider how excess hardware might be provisioned to implement some of these projects.

3.Audit Software Licenses

Keeping with industry best practices, it’s always a good idea to keep an accurate inventory of all hardware and software being utilized on a network. While hardware is generally easier to manage, it’s software that often gets overlooked.

By going through the audit process, you’ll often reveal software that is seldom or no longer used. Once you have identified and eliminated redundancy in your software portfolio, you can then consolidate your software applications to dramatically reduce development, support and maintenance expenditures.

4.Consider Managed Service Providers and Infrastructure Hosting to Manage Day-to-Day IT

Many technology solutions can be supported more efficiently, and less expensively, if handled by an IT managed services provider. This includes remote monitoring and help desk support, infrastructure hosting, hardware/software leasing and email/Web security.

A service provider allows you to…
•Do more with less, by outsourcing day-to-day technology tasks
•Focus internal IT resources on more core competencies
•Realize more predictable IT expenses
•Benefit from additional skills and niche expertise

For IT infrastructure hosting, consider…
•Hosting the equipment at a co-location facility
•Leasing the hardware and/or software from a preferred vendor
•Supporting the solutions at your place of business

Partnering with a managed service provider will arm you with a trusted IT advisor, who focuses on educating your business on available options best suited to your business needs.

5.Align Your IT Infrastructure with Business Processes and Goals

Whether you choose to support an internal IT staff or partner with a provider to support your technology initiatives, it’s critical that short-term and long-term business goals are factored into the decision-making process associated with technology acquisitions.

Your support staff can greatly benefit from meeting with business executives and gaining an understanding of the overall needs of the organization. They can better predict future demands and requirements based on technology and best align future purchases with mission critical goals and objectives.

Substantial cost savings can be realized as both core business and IT initiatives will be aligned as future purchases are made.

It’s important to be aware that as technology continues to evolve, so do available options. Being informed on all solutions leads to valuable benefits such as increased competitive advantages, streamlined operational efficiencies and being able to do more with less.

While it might sound too good to be true, the benefits are real. The solutions exist. The opportunities are out there.

What is your organization currently doing to ensure that your IT budget is stretching as far as it can go?

In a world where capital expenditures continue to climb through the roof, it’s essential for decision-makers to look closely at indicators (such as return on investment) and how quickly expenditures are depreciating over the life span of assets.

Technology is often one column on the budget spreadsheet that takes up a large percentage of capital expense. Hardware needed to adequately support a business’s IT infrastructure is an especially large part of that budget. What increasingly causes alarm is how quickly hardware evolves and how rapid the depreciation cycle is for items that eat up such a large portion of the budget.

This begs the question…How do I maximize the ROI in hardware to support my business needs?

The first idea is leasing and/or hosting your server environment on hardware provided by a third party. This, combined with virtualization, can work in tandem to eliminate the strain on capital budgets and allow your business to mitigate the risk associated with the maintenance and support of computer hardware.

Some of the most notable reasons to consider server hosting and virtualization are:
•Minimize Downtime – Vendor-guaranteed replacement parts
•Cost Effective – Low monthly payments that are easily budgeted
•Improved IT Environment – Vendor handles the necessary power, cooling and security
•Mitigate Risk – Vendor provides a service level agreement that protects your assets

A savvy business mind should see the inherent value in outsourcing this aspect of capital exenditures. This business model has proven to be successful in areas such as business copiers and multifunction printers. These both fall into the same bucket of item depreciation as it pertains to the capital expense being made to acquire the resource.

Computer hardware has always carried an adverse relationship in terms of liability versus return. Now we are finally seeing the emergence of a solution that makes total sense. Mitigate your risks, maximize your return on investment and protect your most valuable non-human assets…your data and the workflow automation that runs your business.

This solution continues to evolve and is finally at a point within its maturation cycle that the cost is attractive and the risk is minimal. Considering risk versus reward, server hosting and virtualization is a solid solution that warrants sufficient business attention, especially when trying to sharpen the sword and streamline operations.

What are your thoughts on server hosting and virtualization to maximize IT resources?

With the price of crude oil dropping below its yearly low, mixed with the current state of the union, how can oil and gas companies continue expanding production efficiency and drive further investments? It’s simple!

•Invest in key areas of technology to integrate systems and processes
•Simplify access to accurate information
•Partner with vendors that provide industry-specific solutions and are eager to form a “partnership-based” relationship

Given the exponential increase in the cost to explore, produce and service oil and gas, energy companies need to look at new tools to increase efficiency and maximize existing systems. IT departments need to provide a technology foundation that can support the increase in seismic processing demands, as well as tools that support the optimization of project and portfolio management.

Invest in key areas of technology that will integrate systems and processes
Implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages like Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards allows companies to seamlessly integrate business work flows, data and processes with the various business segments of the company (Accounting, Shipping/Receiving, Human Resources, etc.).

Simplify access to accurate business information
Assuming the implementation was successful and the users are maximizing the features of the system, oil and gas executives can require more from their predictive analytics and business intelligence tools than ever before. Investments in ERP remediation and/or post-implementation audits are highly advised, especially for those companies that feel they are not getting as much as they could out of their ERP system.

Partner with vendors that provide specific industry solutions and are eager to form a “partnership-based” relationship
Oil and gas IT departments should work with technology partners that invest in building a long-term relationship with them and make an effort to understand their business vision.

The partner should not only demonstrate competency in oil and gas industry knowledge, but look to structure its relationship as a value-added partner. Usually, this is evident by the partner’s ability to deliver highly technical solutions to your SPECIFIC business pains and challenges. A true partner will not only work to solve the problem, but will work just as hard to uncover the true business need.

To truly add value to a company, the partner needs to have a full understanding of your business and its vision before making recommendations to lead to the next level.

Are your systems integrated?

Do you have the tools in place to allow for your executive team to make accurate and timely decisions?

Are you working with a company that truly works at building a long term relationship?

I’ve spent the past 10 years working closely with businesses that operate in the small-to-medium (SMB) market. I work directly with decision makers to assist with the preparation and planning of budgets, strategic plans, business continuity strategies and a wide variety of technology needs. During the course of this journey, it’s been an eye-opener to enter into a new engagement only to discover the fundamentals needed to secure a business network and provide a stable working environment are all too often overlooked.

The establishment of a sound IT infrastructure seems to have been cut to the quick as the over-riding decision to satisfy the end user and reduce costs, without seeking proper guidance, rears its ugly head. While the initial result might seem satisfactory at first, questions inevitably peek above the surface, searching for answers as to why the overall productivity and efficiency of the network seems to have fallen by the wayside.

•Why is the system running so slow?

•Why can’t I access the network anymore? (print, access file shares, etc.)

•I accidentally deleted a file…Can we retrieve those files from the “network”?

Regardless of what the situation is, failing to implement the proper IT foundation from the ground up, while designing and installing a network, WILL come back to bite you. I absolutely guarantee it. I’ve witnessed it too often.

The most unfortunate aspect of this scenario is that it’s common for a business to become complacent and embrace unnecessary work-arounds, fostering a “band-aid” approach to the evolution of the company’s business technology needs. The effects this situation has on a business are profound. Yet, many times the leadership of the organization cannot identify the root cause, resulting in a full-blown mess.

Here are some steps to turn things around and “right the ship”:

•Perform a hardware and software audit – Inspect warranty information, purchase history, patch management for applications and licensing compliance.
•Review and/or create policies – Identify and review existing network usage policies such as data retention, virus prevention and security protocols.
•Learn technology industry best practices – Even if this requires bringing in outside representation to provide expertise, it’s a wise investment.
•Develop an action plan and stick to it – Regardless of what your budget and/or resource constraints are, develop a plan that incorporates those constraints and stick to the plan.

The simple facts are that we are now expected to perform in a business environment that does not allow organizations to turn a blind eye to the role technology plays in driving business processes. With each passing day, the demands placed on businesses to perform are ever-increasing. Technology is the difference maker…plain and simple.

Being exposed to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) lately, I’m afraid I’m coming down with a fever, hot flashes and jumpy legs. I suggest you all stay away from me, or you might come down with the “sickness” too. The name Windows Management Instrumentation implies a 21st century Gestapo organization that quarantines computers and people in a vacuum of space and time.

I can see the movie preview now…

Movie Preview Guy: In the future, societies pivot between billions and billions of worlds inside entities and relationships…
Ilene, receptionist at CIM, a big futuristic corporation: (With a big smile) Good morning Mister Peacembodied.
Peacembodied, big wig at CIM: Good morning Ilene.
Movie Preview Guy: People, interfaces and devices are not what they seem…
Big wig: Ilene, Could you please schedule an emergency meeting with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)?
Movie Preview Guy: In a future where the DMTF controls all interoperability interactions between man and machine, something is missing and lost forever in our distant past…
Big wig: Also Ilene, I would like you to arrange the resurrection of Bill Gates from cryogenic freeze. I want him to be a part of this meeting.
Movie Preview Guy: Only one man backed by billions of dollars, on a mission for exposed continuity, can save humanity’s need for technology. Your neighborhood is not safe. Lock your doors or kiss yourself goodbye. Bill Gates is Mr. AND Mrs. Interoperability!

MR. AND MRS INTEROPERABILITY COMING SOON TO YOUR FUTURE SOCIETY

If you are not there, you might as well be dead… and if you are not dead… you at least should not be breathing.

Disclaimer:
Anyone with a heart condition must leave the room.

All jokes aside, here is a little background on WMI…
WMI is Microsoft’s answer to basically every application that needs to communicate with any version of a Microsoft application, regardless of the operating system version. The goal of the common information model (CIM) and WMI is to expose the data about all applications on the computer(s) that need to communicate with each other (i.e. other computers inside a network or devices exposed on the network).

This provides additional functionality to the user, whether or not the user is even aware they’re in direct contact with the computer or another computer. The WMI is the vessel (or bidirectional message) that allows the calling application to communicate with the CIM. Think of the CIM repository as a SQL container (or database), because that’s almost exactly what it is.

The WMI also departmentalizes the exposed application into methods or tasks, which can be performed by user interfaces and extend a user-friendly namespace to be called from the .NET language.

Just like any other relational database, child parts of the exposed namespace can be interfaced with. The CIM repository is called from the WMI via a standard language called WQL (WMI Query Language). Sounds familiar? Well it is. It is based on T-SQL and follows almost the same rules and structure all developers are familiar with. This decreases development time due to the fact that all WMI components are housed in the same place and can be called using the same language.

This call is similar to an order placed by phone or fax to a restaurant, with all the directions needed to complete the order. The WMI places the order and picks it up after the chef (CIM) verifies that it has the ingredients for WMI. Just like placing an order, you go through all the things you want in your order and how you want the order prepared. This is very similar to custom APIs. Sounds great doesn’t it?

BUT…I’ve experienced problems when the WMI (Mr. and Mrs. Interoperability) calls in an order for something that’s not available, but the CIM expects it to be.

Goes like this…
Caller: What do you mean you are out of cheese!? You deliver pizza right?

I’ve had two problems related to this issue. One problem occurred when subject matter expert attempted to install SQL server and the CIM repository seemed to be missing, causing the installation process to expect “a pizza with CHEESE.” The pizza company was no longer there to answer the call and make the pizza. The second issue I experienced was related to credential issues.

I support Microsoft and value what they are trying to do, but have Mr. and Mrs. Interoperability created a one dimensional environment that prevents and forces us to communicate with only one restaurant with a limited menu? What are your thoughts and experiences with WMI?

Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a major crisis to get decision-makers, in both the public and private sectors, to put together adequate plans to effectively prepare for, respond to and recover from natural or man-made disasters.

While disaster response and recovery efforts were common prior to Sept.11, government and private organizations placed a much higher emphasis on business continuity planning in the aftermath of the attacks.  They began building more resiliency and back-up systems into their business technology infrastructure.

This should come as no surprise considering only two of the 131 businesses whose technology was directly affected by Sept. 11 attacks were able to perform a successful failover, despite the magnitude of the disruption.  Of the 129 remaining sites, 70 percent (90 businesses) were able to resume some level of critical business operation after 120 hours (5 days) of downtime. The remaining 30 percent (39) lost their data completely.

In light of these facts, the hard question needs to be asked…

Is your business capable of sustaining an event that poses a real threat to its ability to continue with core business operations?

Technology is the piston that drives a business’s core processes.  As such, much consideration should be given to how these processes will continue to operate in the event certain resources of today are not available tomorrow.

1. What if a leaky sprinkler pipe slowly drips water on your servers, which are located in “the room that no one ever goes into” ?
2. What if a fire breaks out and destroys not only your servers, but the stack of data backup tapes stored on top of the servers for quick access and convenience?
3. What if the facility you are accustomed to being at each day is leveled by a category five hurricane?

The point to this line of questioning is that a disaster can come in many shapes and sizes.  You often have little to no warning prior to its impact. The amount of downtime you’re forced to incur can prove catastrophic to your business and its ability to survive long-term.

Have verifiable plans in place for such a situation.  A deep understanding of how your business transactions function is critical to creating verifiable plans.  It’s important to understand which core business processes must survive in the event of a disaster. Questions must be answered as to what operations currently support key business processes.

Ask yourself:

As reliance on technology intensifies, it’s critical to recognize the competitive advantages associated with an established technology portfolio.  However, it’s equally important to realize the ramifications of not being able to access that technology in the off-chance that the unlikely becomes likely.

How would it affect your business if your competitor had its business up and running before you could even figure out what wasn’t working? If you are in Houston, how did Hurricane Ike affect restoration of key operations?

If you had told business owners ten years ago that in 2008 they would be able to have business e-mail, contacts, calendar and tasks available on their mobile phones, your standard response would have been, “why?”  Also, you would have been tossed out as some sort of IT snake oil peddler.

Ten years ago, the general population didn’t even know about e-mail. But with the evolution of these standard business tools and leverage of even faster-evolving mobile phone technology, the future is now.

When choosing the right mobile solution for your business, you have options with important differences between them. There are two major players offering mobile office-synchronization solutions. *The Apple iPhone® is an emerging player in this market. It just recently released firmware 2.0, which has true push-sync capabilities similar to the industry leaders. This could definitely make it a viable option soon.

The current leader is Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry® platform. The second most popular is Microsoft Windows Mobile®. Just like personal computers, Windows Mobile devices are made by several different manufacturers.

BlackBerry was the first enterprise-class mobile solution, and that’s the reason it’s still number one. RIM has taken baby steps towards improving the product since its inception. The devices have gotten smaller and software has become extremely robust. A major benefit of BlackBerry is its experience.  From day one, the software was designed with enterprise in mind — making security, scalability and management the foundation of the system.

For businesses with more than five but less than 15 devices, RIM offers Small Business BlackBerry Server, which gives much of the same functionality as the full enterprise entry with fewer licenses. The full console is still available to manage all devices, including the ability to remotely wipe lost devices, set policies and control exactly what gets synced and how.

In spite of its dominance, RIM’s offering has drawbacks. Network outages have knocked out BlackBerry services on several occasions, most lasting for hours. A few hours on rare occasions may not sound like a big deal, but when you come to depend on your BlackBerry as a tool, it can seem like life or death.

Another drawback is the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) software. It’s an extra expense to incur. Factor the recommended yearly support, and it can become quite expensive. BES can be finicky. Even RIM recommends running it on a separate server (not every business has an extra server lying around).  I have seen heavy calendar users experience issues due to the complexity and sheer volume of their traffic. If you can live with these limitations, BlackBerry is an otherwise excellent and mature solution.

Windows Mobile is the other alternative. With the advent of this solution, companies are no longer chained to BlackBerry as the only mobile option. Microsoft uses existing technology built in to Exchange Server, which is slightly modified, to “push” e-mail out to Windows devices. The solution was dubbed Exchange ActiveSync with DirectPush technology. Microsoft eliminated the need for third-party software or servers, only requiring some minor configuration changes and purchasing an SSL certificate for your domain (sometimes optional). Setup can be a little complicated, but once everything is configured, it’s a reliable and native option.

Because ActiveSync and DirectPush are newer technologies, the devices are catching up to BlackBerry’s market share. Most Windows phones are bigger, but make up for it by performing the functions of a Pocket PC. The trade-off in size allows you to edit Word and Excel attachments on the fly.

However, the battery life of Windows devices leaves a little to be desired, partly because of the way DirectPush works. Microsoft has also addressed the issue of security by allowing administrators or users of lost or stolen phones to remotely wipe all data from the Pocket PC through Exchange. With Exchange 2007, users can wipe their devices from the webmail client, which is accessible from any global Web browser.

Last but not least, the wild card entry from Apple. As of the World Wide Developers Conference in June, Apple has shipped six million units. The new iPhone 3G sold more than one million units in the first three days, following the July 2008 release.

Let’s put that into perspective:

• Apple has shipped 7 million iPhones in the past year
• RIM has shipped 5 million BlackBerrys in the previous three years
• iPhone searches on Google are occurring 50 times more than any other mobile solution

I just recently got the chance to demo the direct push feature on the iPhone, after waiting more than a year. I must say, it’s impressive. It works much the same as the Windows solution. If you have an Exchange Server, you can type a few keystrokes and start synching. E-mail reception and contacts synching are instant. One drawback is that it’s possible to view Word, Excel and PDF files, but not edit them, yet.

Consumer demand makes purchasing phones for businesses more complicated than other technology. Apple’s Web site currently states, “Corporate customers contact AT&T.” From what I can tell, this phone is not ready for prime time. The fans are out there and growing. Only time will tell if Apple has what it takes to capture the market, but it certainly cannot be ignored. What do you think?