TechRepublic: 10 skills developers will need in the next five years

Did you read the article on TechRepublic - 10 skills developers will need in the next five years?  Based on my experience in the current market, it looks like Justin is right on track.  http://tinyurl.com/c6uvsm

Doing more with less!

In the current economy, we are all being asked to more with less. Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men's souls” in ‘The Crisis’ during the American Revolution. Even in those trying times Paine choose to be optimistic and look for “the way out of it.” By looking for opportunities in today’s trying times, we can find creative ways to do more with less. Here are some examples of what we have done for clients:

Upgrade Talent
In the current economy there is some excellent resources on the market. A strong IT staffing company can help you backfill your poor performing staff members or contractors, which will improve the skill level of your staff and help you do more with less. This can also help you get a better match of skills to support your projects.

Partner with Your Staffing Company to Reduce The Time and Effort Required to Select Staff
Partner with your IT staffing vendor(s) to have them do more screening upfront before you receive candidate resumes. Communicate the requirement thoroughly and a little training from you, you can reduce your interview to hire ratios from the industry average of 8:1 to around 2:1. We’ll discuss what makes a thorough job order requirement in a future blog. Some IT staffing vendors are more capable and trustworthy in doing this than others. At CEI we have a formal Exact Match screening process that is designed to deliver the right candidates to you so IT managers can spend more time delivering their projects and less time reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates.

After Cuts Augment Staff Short Term to Complete Projects
We’ve looked at companies that have had to reduce labor to beyond where they want to. We can help them shore up the remaining resources and stabilize; extend themselves without the liability of full time hires; grow as things turn around with avoided costs of growth and have some flexibility if down the road there are some hires they would like to make. We have looked at trimming and growing without the overhead of full timers – a cost avoidance strategy – to weather and then grow the capacity of the IT staff.

Exclusives To Get Cost Savings
We’ve had clients give us exclusives which has allowed us pass along the cost of sales savings to them.

Co-Managed or Captive Capacity Teams
We have done co-managed or captive capacity teams, where it’s a hybrid of project and staffing – the client manages the project; we manage the team day to day; they get a team from one vendor (one contract – simplicity and lower cost; more consistency of resource – one company to deal with and lower cost; etc.); they get some of the benefits of outsourcing (non-India) and don’t pay for the higher priced management and lead resources; they retain the core of their key people and ultimately weather the storm while continuing to move the ball forward. These teams can be used for new development projects or support and maintenance.

Creative Use of IT Budget
In the past we have worked with IT Departments to find creative ways to deliver their projects using other line items when their contracting budget has dried up. This could involve using co-managed or captive capacity teams.

Outsource Offshore for Cost Savings
Offshore outsourcing does not always provide cost savings. A company with experience in offshore like CEI can work with you to select potential projects that can provide cost savings. With CEI's Global Agile Development process, we will deliver business value to you in the first 30 days of your project or outsourcing initiatives. It combines traditional software development methods and Agile development processes that provide solid software development and management with the agility needed to address changing requirements and foster communication and interaction among clients and onshore and offshore development teams. You can read more about it at http://www.ceiamerica.com/cei/company/resources/ceinformant_04062006.pdf

Outsourced Support And Maintenance Work
CEI can assist by taking on support and maintenance work, on or off shore, thereby freeing key individuals up to focus on higher return work for the firm. They are happier with the work; they are able to be more productive and add more value to the company; their performance is applauded versus questioned. As an added benefit, as times begin to get better, the company can avoid the higher costs and future liabilities of re-hiring to staff since they already have in place a more cost effective and productive team from CEI.

The bottom line is that CEI is a multi-dimensional – we can bring a lot of delivery options to the table today and evolve into others downstream without the level of commitments that others might require. It is all about supporting your team with creative solutions in a trying economic climate of tight budgets and tighter schedules.

Please contact me at 412-571-3694 if you would like to explore some of these options.

Do you have other ideas that have worked for you? Please post them as comments.

Do You Have Vendors Or Partners?

When you assess your IT contracting vendors there are questions you should be asking yourself.

Does my vendor understand my business?
Over time, your vendors should understand challenges in your industry and more specifically in your organization. Understanding the obstacles you face should enable your vendors to become proactive in helping you solve your IT challenges.

Does my vendor understand my technology environment?
Understanding your technology environment should be a key objective of your vendor. They should also know why you are using that technology. Coupled with this knowledge they will be able to screen candidates that are a great fit for your environment. 

Does your vendor solicit feedback on their performance and service?
Every vendor should be focused on quality and delivering superior service. Each of your vendors should meet quarterly with you to discuss how well they have performed and suggest ways they can improve their service.

Do you want and are you willing to have a partner?
Developing strong relationships with your vendors is a win-win situation. As a partner, your vendor will understand your environment and be better able to identify consultants that will help you meet your objectives. Open communication with your vendor and defining mutual expectations not only improves relationships but can eliminate potential issues that prevent you from meeting your objectives.

Written by Lonny Leseck

Hiring the Best and the Brightest

In the staffing world the value the vendor brings is identifying and qualifying contractors that will help you meet your project objectives. In looking underneath the covers there are a few inherent obstacles that may get in the way of the vendor adding value and consequently the client receiving value. There a few considerations for both clients and vendors when going through the hiring process.

Understanding of requirements

It is very important the hiring manager is as specific as possible in communicating their requirements to the vendor. Sometimes a manager knows what they need but does not always do a great job communicating the requirements to the sales representative or recruiter. It is always better to over explain the requirements rather than under explaining them. A vendor must have the knowledge and be savvy enough to understand when they do not have a complete understanding of the requirements. In these cases they need to have the ability to ask the right questions to make sure they get enough information to find the right candidate the first time.

Presenting the candidate

Every manager has a different way of looking at resumes. In other words, what is important to one manager may not be as important to another, for example; length of past assignments, formatting of resume, and length of resume. Another area that will preclude a resume from consideration is when the resume does not clearly highlight the actual strengths of the contractors as it relates to that specific job order. The timing of the resume submittal is also a factor in the interview process. Just remember the first to the dance does not always go home with the girl. If a vendor is doing their job and screening the contractor for each unique position it may take a little longer to get the candidate to the client.

Feedback is a 2 way street

Hiring managers should try to give the vendors feedback on the resumes submitted and the interviews they are conducting. This best practice should minimize the amount of interviews that have to take place before they find the right candidate. Vendors need to take feedback and improve their search criteria as well as their screening process.

Small Firms Win Over IT Talent

Allan E. Alter gives some interesting insights into how mid-market IT organizations get a lower turnover rate then larger companies.

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,2151013,00.asp