Technology and the Importance of People
There’s no doubt that the state of the economy is having an impact on IT organizations in Canada, but the type of impact it is having may surprise you.
At a recent executive round table luncheon with Microsoft's Eric Gales, vice-president of the Small to Midmarket Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) division, the discussion immediately focused on the state of business and the economy. There is no denying that the economy is having an impact (Eric called it “unprecedented”), but for IT organizations the need, and indeed mandate, to create more value, find more customers, drive innovation and reduce costs has never been more urgent or important. Eric pointed out that companies that make the most of their resources and talent in these trying times will be extremely well positioned when the economy rebounds.
A recent edition of CIO Magazine (March) featured an editorial by David Carey about the shortage of qualified tech workers in Canada and subsequent articles focused on how to succeed in a tough economy:
Denise Dubie contributed an article that discussed the risks associated with not fostering the knowledge base in your IT workers. Bob Mathers discussed the re-examination of ITIL with the release of ITIL V3 and how its foundations are being used to identify discrete processes within the organization that need fixing and that will provide the more immediate ROI (you can read more about that here) and Joan Goodchild pointed out that in tough times, a successful security strategy includes having the right mix of people on your team.
The bottom line is that companies that want to succeed in a down economy are using technology reduce costs, and to create more innovative technology solutions (more value) for their clients. Everyone is using existing resources to do more, struggling to find efficiencies, and fostering a great group of IT professionals to make it all happen can present a challenge. Building the skills of your team can help to foster loyalty and has the added benefit of making it easier to accomplish all the bottom line concerns.
TekSource Corporate Learning
Innovative Scheduling that Fits your Reality
Scheduling your team for skills development and training is tough – and ensuring that the training that you schedule for your team happens on time is critical to the projects you’re working on. That’s why TekSource is redefining course scheduling as part of our (R)Evolution offering. This means that the courses your team needs are scheduled by TekSource more often than our competitors (we encourage you to compare), and with our unique (R)Evolution offering, you have more flexibility as to how you complete the course. Looking for a specific course? Just go type it into the search box or call us directly and we’ll help you find it.
Every Week the top technology professionals in Toronto gather at TekSource When you take a course at TekSource, you don’t just come here for the course. We like to think of it as a membership, and with any (R)Evolution course, you get 6 months access to our facility, instructors and facilitators, course content, and unlimited access to our discussion forums. You can even drop by and just have a coffee in our internet lounge. Because of our “open door” policy, a lot of learning happens in our facility outside of the classroom – which is the way it should be.
Come by and see what it’s all about - Just in the week of March 15th, 2010 we’re offering the following: