State of Ohio Funding for Training

Funding for Training - state of Ohio

The state of Ohio is in process of formalizing a plan to invest monies collected from taxes on casino revenues into training for Ohio employees and organizations.

The program has not yet been announced.  The expectation is that the appropriate state official will make the announcement in the coming months.

The information below provides additional advance information.

Program Overview

• 50% of tuition reimbursed (up to $4,000 per employee and up to $500,000 per company) for qualifying employees and employers

Program Eligibility:

To be eligible for financial assistance, the following requirements must be met by both the employer and employee.

EMPLOYER ELIGIBILITY – an eligible employer must operate as a for-profit entity in a state-designated targeted industry with a facility located in Ohio that has been in continuous operation for the 12 months immediately prior to submitting the application.

Targeted industries are:

• Advanced Manufacturing

• Aerospace and Aviation
• Automotive
• BioHealth
• Corporate Headquarters
• Energy
• Financial Services
• Food Processing
• Information Technology and Services
• Polymers and Chemicals

EMPLOYEE ELIGIBILITY – an eligible employee is someone who is directly employed by the company at a facility located within Ohio and meets all of the following requirements:

• Employed in any of the following business functions: production, back office operations, information technology, logistics, or research and development
• Earning an hourly wage of at least 150 percent of the federal minimum wage ($10.88 as of January 1, 2012) plus benefits
• An Ohio resident
• At least 18 years of age
• Working at least 25 hours per week

Note: an employee who is employed in a retail/service function is not eligible for the voucher program.

Eligible training activities include:

• Classes, either non-credit or credit, at an accredited education institution
• Training that leads to an industry recognized certificate
• Training provided in conjunction with the purchase of a new piece of equipment
• Upgrade of computer skills (e.g. Excel, Access)
• Training for the ICD-10-CM/PCS diagnostics classification system (regardless of whether the employee works for a for-profit or non-profit employer)
• Training from a national, regional, or state trade association that offers an independently certified training curriculum and testing
• Training for improved process efficiency (e.g. ISO-9000, Six Sigma or Lean Manufacturing).

Ineligible training activities include (but are not limited to)

Training that is not eligible include:

• Training that is already being reimbursed by another State or Federal training program (e.g. Ohio Workforce Guarantee, National Emergency Grant, etc.)
• Continuing Education Units (CEUs) required for continued professional certification
• Soft Skills (e.g. diversity, ethics, HR law, management and leadership, sexual harassment, etc.)
• Training which is reimbursed/required by other public agencies or departments (e.g. OSHA, Worker’s Compensation)
• General Equivalency Diploma (GED)
• Profit-oriented courses (e.g. sales, marketing research, and Dale Carnegie training)
• Conference fees
• Wages of trainees while being trained
• Travel costs

Below is a list of information that will be requested on the application.

• Company Information: Company Legal Name, Address, FTI#, NAICS Code, Industry Type, Description of Business, Date of Establishment in Ohio, Number of Employees in Ohio, and Company contact information.

• Employee/Trainee Information: Employee Name, Job Title, SSN (will be encrypted via our IT office), Date of Birth, Work Address, Ohio Resident Requirement (Yes/No), Hire Date, Work Function (Back Office, IT, Logistics, Production, Research & Development), Job Description, and Hourly Wage Rate.

• Training: Name and Address of Training Provider(s), Course Title, Course Description, Training Start and End Dates, Training Will Result In (Certificate of Completion, College Credit, Industry Recognized Certificate, Other, Systems Certification), Training Outcomes for Company (Secure a New Contract, New Domestic Market, Expansion of an Existing Client Base, New Export Market, New Business Partnership), and Training Costs per employee.

Training Summary: Training Outcome for the Employee (New Skill for Current Position, Training for Career Advancement, Skill Modernization, Training for a New Position/Promotion). If you have assigned an employee to more than one course, you will have to repeat this process for each course they are assigned

Success with Google Messaging

Success with Google Messaging

A driving reason for our switch from having an internal messaging environment to using Google messaging was security and simplicity.

As a small company, our processes for scrubbing mail, keeping virus protection up to date, fixing a compromised server when necessary, and other maintenance items for properly maintaining a messaging environment were not up to our standards. That is why we looked at using a service for this software.

After researching several alternatives, we migrated to Google Messaging in the summer of 2011.  We have been pleased with this product.

Here are the key benefits for Arden Corporation: 

• As a small business owner, I don't worry about our messaging servers getting compromised and losing time rebuilding a damaged environment
• We spend significantly less time reviewing Spam mail because Google has a better solution than our previous software
• We spend no time monitoring our messaging environment (e.g. looking at dead mail, checking log files)
• We now use chat (infrequently) and make some of our phone calls from our computer (instead of our office phone or cell phone)
• It is easier to access our e-mail regardless of where we are working 

These are some of the benefits we have enjoyed.  Over the coming months, we will be sharing more about the benefits (and disadvantages) we are finding as we look to move more of our computing to Google products (e.g. Google Docs, AnyMeeting).

Don't Lose Priya

Her name is Priya.  She came to Cincinnati from New Delhi, India in September of 2007 on an H1B Visa.  She is a hard worker for her company – one any company would be thrilled to have.

One of the concerns Priya has is that her company has provided little training.  Being that education is a top value for her, she is concerned that she is getting left behind in her field.  While some of her friends are getting more versed in developing mobile applications, creating web based document management systems, and handling security issues, she continues to be focused on the same programming work as when she first came to America five years ago.

Since her employer has not invested in helping Priya for the past five years, she is actively looking for a better work situation.  It is not a better salary that is motivating her.  Rather, she is motivated by the need to work on technologies that are current and will help her keep her skills current – and which also make her even more valuable to her employer.

During this recession, many of our clients stopped investing in education for their staff.  Now that they are running profitably, many have still not added training back in.  We have seen the negative affect of neglecting employee training in the past few quarters as more IT staff are leaving for better opportunities.  

For example, one of our clients recently lost a key infrastructure person to Juniper.  Juniper is focused on establishing a presence in this region and is hiring people away from companies like yours.  The manager with whom I spoke said this person is “irreplaceable.”

Another client lost one of their key IT people to a growing medium-sized company.  One of the employee’s key motivating factors for leaving was having the ability to implement his ideas for improving the business (through improved technology). 

The number of companies vying for your staff has increased significantly in 2012.  Will investing in education lessen the possibility that you would lose a person like Priya ?

Yes, you know it does. You have experience with this and you are smart enough to know that investing in building your employees increases longevity.

And of course, there are always other factors you can’t control that impact longevity – spouse transfer, wrong cultural match, etc.  But do you want to risk losing those people like Priya who are looking for further development – especially when investing in training only helps both of you in the long run?

If you would like to talk more about how to improve your business through technical education, visit www.ardentraining.com or e-mail me at  robert.gepfert@ardentraining.com to schedule an initial meeting

On line Education: Advantages and Disadvantages

Most of our customers have experience with on line learning programs - both self study and those that involve a subject expert live on line.

Over the past few years, the reactions we have gotten from our clients about live on line training has been more diverse (and more emotional) than other methods of education.  Some swear they will never take a live on line class again - ever  Some say it is a better option for them.  

For purposes of this article, we'll look at three categories:

1. On line self study classes
2. On line live programs - led by a subject expert
3. In person education - led by a subject expert (in the same physical room as the student)

As with many things in your life, there are advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the advantages of on line self study can include:

• Greater control over the amount of time spent on a particular topic
• Ease of repeating content
• Time flexibility

Some disadvantages we have seen are:

• Most individuals lack the self discipline needed to "stick with it"
• The amount of time it takes is more than other learning methods

Some of the advantages of on line live programs can include:

• Eliminates travel
• Ability to participate in an environment of your choosing (e.g. your home)

Some disadvantages we have seen are:

• The amount of time a person can use this medium (less than when in person with a trainer) - e.g. 2 - 4 hours versus 4 - 8 hours
• Missed communications due to lack of face-to-face connection

Some of the advantages of working with a subject expert in person can include:

• Longer attention span of learner
• Increased emotional involvement and impact of training as a result

Some disadvantages we have seen are:

• May necessitate travel time and cost
• Limited autonomy when in another's environment

My conclusion, at this juncture, is that more use of and research on results is needed to enable one to have a better understanding of a good mix of self study, on line live, and in person live education for their personal situation.  

One key trend is combining self study and live programs to increase skill development.

Energy Management: Your Personal Energy Management

In preparing for a learning session on personal productivity for an upcoming annual meeting for an IT consulting company, I gained more clarity that personal productivity is closely tied to how you manage a key commodity - your energy.  

Your energy management is resource allocation.  Since many of our clients are involved in resource allocation of technical resources (their staff and their own), thinking of this in similar terms may help you.

The amount of energy (e.g. calories as measurable units) you have available each day is relatively constant.  That means that the better you are at using your energy on the activities that are most likely to yield desired results, the more you accomplish your objectives in a shorter time frame (assuming you are clear on key objectives).

Let's bring this down to a practical level.  You have an energy cycle each day.  One improvement you can make is doing key activities that require more energy at your peak energy times.  This helps insure that key activities get accomplished (i.e. before you run out of energy for them).

For example, the time of day I am generally most mentally vibrant is from 6:30 am to 8 am.  I normally work on more mentally demanding tasks (marketing plans, studying new technologies, analyzing information) during this cycle.

My energy from 8 am - noon is also high.  Being that communications with customers is one of my highest priority activities (and one that I spend 6 - 8 hours a day on), I focus on higher importance customers communications in the morning.

I experience an energy drop in the afternoon.  During that time, I will be involved in activities that build up my energy.  I may take a lunch break, read, get quiet time, run an errand, or other actions that build up my energy.

My energy renewal at this time may also be caffeine (which I do not use in the morning), scheduling internal or external meetings at this time (because they normally take less energy), or exercise (yes, I am fortunate to have autonomy to do so on some days). 

Then I am good to go until 5 pm.  If I work past 5 pm, it is normally on actions that don't take a lot of brain power (e.g. lower priority e-mail communications, prioritizing actions, reviewing receivables, etc.)

At night, the energy I have depends upon the demands of my family.  When I am involved in family activities that drain me (like shopping), I fade fast.  On a good night, I'll spend time playing with my daughter (which is energy giving), eat a meal, and get an hour of reading or studying done.  As an introvert, I get energy by doing activities alone (e.g. meditating, reading, fixing things in the house, building things, etc.)

In addition to being smart about allocating your activities to be in sync with your energy cycle for the day, it is prudent to know what drains your energy (so as to minimize these in your life) and what gives you energy (so as to do these more consciously more often).

Some of my energy givers include:

• Mental conditioning
• Mobility
• Exercise
• Quiet time
• Reading
• Meeting new individuals
• Being in a new place
• Changing tasks
• Productive use of my time
• Trying new activities
• Taking risks
• Doing things that I am afraid to do (e.g. Drop Zone, jet skis, four wheeling)

Some of my energy drainers include:

• People who have a developed habit of complaining
• Too much socializing
• Involvement in activities that bore me (e.g. shopping)
• Watching others do things (TV, live sports)
• Sleeping more than eight (8) hours
• Too much sun
• Too much sugar in my blood 
• Change of sleeping pattern

Another factor is your work environment.  Realizing that some elements of your work environment are not under your control, focus on those that are.  For example, when we moved to a new education center, my workstation was in the nerve center (our euphemism for server and storage room).  I found, after working in that area over a period of months, that I would experience a significant energy lag in the afternoon.  I was able to be productive ten (10) hours a day when I worked in an area that had natural light (and less so in the nerve center).  So now, I am a roving worker - working in whatever windowed room is available that day (I work using a laptop).   Being that change gives me energy, changing rooms also gives me an added energy boost.

Here are some work environment factors for you to consider:

§         Independently or collaboratively 

§         Autonomously or supervised 

§         Quiet or active environment 

§         Length of time you like to work

§         Prefer focus on one task for a while or moving between tasks often

§         Do interruptions normally energize you or irritate you 

§         Working with scheduled planned in advance or figure it out as you go 

§         Do you enjoy attending meetings with others 

§         Is it important to have your work environment uncluttered 

§         Do you prefer routine in your day

      Again, I recognize that an office worker can only control some of these aspects.  Even if you can only improve one, that may get you some extra productivity.

      My expectation is that if you improve one or two habits from these ideas and put them into practice, it would be realistic to have a 2% to 4% gain in the amount of work you get done - and in today's age where the worker productivity (at least in the USA) is at an all time high, even 2% is significant. 

Search as a Competitive Advantage

Search as a Competitive Advantage

We are finding that most workers spend much more time reading documents, reviewing charts and diagrams, sharing experiences, and sourcing experts than in past years.  Finding the right answer at or near the moment of need is increasingly important.

As a business person, I remember (in my first two decades of work) having to travel 25 minutes to the main library in downtown Cincinnati to look up information about a company in Dun and Bradstreet records.  


As a child, I remember having to sift through Encyclopedia Britannica books to find information for school reports.


I realize that some of you reading this may not have heard about these two reference books.   Some of you may be young enough to have had search engines (like Google) available since you were first able to type.  You may not have ever even been in a library (how archaic are those places, you may think).


Regardless of where we get our information, all of us clearly understand of the value of being able to find an answer to a situation quickly. This value has accelerated our ability to educate ourselves more rapidly -  because of the lessened time needed to find information. 


Having information readily available makes your ability to process the information more important - especially because there are more sources (and more unreliable sources).  One's ability to ferret information is a more important skill in the work place in the past decade - although one not often discussed.


In addition, finding experts to help you with a situation has become easier due to software solutions (e.g. LMS, social software such as LinkedIn)


Where am I going with these thoughts?


Here are actions for you to consider due to the change in availability of information:

• Facilitating the tools to enable employees to find a right answer at the moment of need is a more key responsibility of human resources / training and development personnel
• Using systems to identify subject matter experts who can help distribute valuable knowledge is becoming increasingly prevalent
• Be aware that you are making your decisions about education for yourself and your staff with the awareness that more of your employees skill / knowledge development time is in an informal learning method (e.g. reading documents, reviewing reports, sharing experiences, communications with an expert) than in formal learning situations (e.g. self paced e-learning, classroom training)

If you don't do any of these actions, take heart in the fact that you are in the majority at this time. 


Few organizations provide employees with good internal tools (i.e. Google is an excellent external tool) to search formal and informal content.  Be aware that a universal search capability (federated search) will be more and more prevalent in business in the coming years.  We expect it to be a competitive advantage.

Betting on your health

Though what you pay for health insurance is not an IT subject, it affects all of us. 

Having recently gone through the annual process of evaluating health insurance coverage and costs, our experiences may help you in your decision making.  The change we are making is saving us about 50% on our premiums this year.


At Arden Education, one of our values is simplicity. As such, we keep decision factors as basic as is reasonable.
 
Based upon keeping decision factors simple, my thinking on health insurance is that it is similar in some respects to other insurance (life, auto, home).  The company that provides the insurance wants to pay out less for the use of the service than is collected in payments (premiums).   This allows them operating income and profits to invest.  

You want to pay as little as is reasonable for coverage in the case of an unexpected incident.

My feeling is that I should use health insurance like I use life insurance, auto insurance, and home insurance - to cover losses that are beyond my financial means.  Being that I am not a frequent user of any of my insurance products, I opt to keep my payments to the insurance companies lower by opting to take on higher deductibles / higher premiums and higher risk on my part.  One might call this a strategy of catastrophic insurance.

In years past, we were unable to find health insurance plans that were focused on insuring against a catastrophic loss.  One reason was that we had an individual in our group whose pre-existing conditions necessitated with staying with low deductible plans.  That individual is now on another company's plan. 

With that freedom, we were able to freely shop options this year.  That freedom has allowed us to select plans that are half the premiums of last year's plan.  That sounds good, yes?  The primary reason for this is that we are taking on more financial responsibility for our use of health provider's services.  Last year, our deductible (with Anthem) was $2,500 for individuals.  This year, it is $5,000 per individual.

For example, last year our family premium was $8,300 for a family of four.  This year, our premium will be $4,100.

Here are some potential possible risks.  If my eight year old daughter or our nineteen year old son breaks a leg, I will have to pay out an additional $2,500 ($5,000 total) for the care (assuming the total bill is $5,000+).  If that is the only incident in a 12 month period, we are still $1,700 ahead.  And with the health savings account, we have the option to bank that money in a protected account.

It sounds good doesn't it?

It might not be true for you and your situation. Here are some reasons it may not work for you.  One is that we are a small business.  The plans we are going to move to are individual plans for our employees (i.e. not group coverage).  The individual plans allow us to opt out of maternity coverage (all the women in our group are past the child bearing stage in their life).  A second reason is that we are a healthy group (no smokers, regular exercisers, etc.).  Being a more healthy group helps us to feel more confident about taking on more of our own risk - with the possible reward of being able to build up a health savings account.

Realizing that your situation may have more details and complications than our, it is my hope that this article encourages you to look more closely at your health insurance options when your current plan expires.

Migrating to Google Applications

After several months of testing last year, our business migrated to Google Applications earlier this year.  This blog is to provide some information on our initial experiences - with the hope that it would help others lessen their migration time.  It may also help encourage others who are considering cloud computing for messaging and calendaring.

Being a calculated risk taker, I spent time over several months researching and testing Google Applications. 

Being that we are small company (less than 10 users), the general input I was getting from others who have made the switch is that "it is a no brainer".  I've too much experience to know that any new situation brings with it advantages and disadvantages.  One of my primary concerns was how much time we would lose getting used to the new interface.  Another was losing key e-mail communications.

During our testing phase we planned to continue using our current in-house mail server (Notes / Domino software) and forward mail to our new Google mail server.  We ran into problems getting this to work.  The main issue was that Google does not allow having a "personal" account (e.g. Google Mail, Adwords, Blogger) with the same user name as a "business" account. In my case, I was using my primary e-mail as my user name for my "personal accounts" - robert.gepfert@ardentraining.com.  We have had several Google "personal accounts"  (two Google Blogger accounts, Local Business, Analytics, Adwords, and Optimizer) for a long time.  To remedy the problem of being able to use Google mail in our "business account", I created new user names for these "personal accounts".  It took several weeks to figure out this was the problem and fixing it. 

One of the messaging administrators at one of our customer companies recommended keeping our current messaging environment active along with Google mail. I did this by listing Google servers as the first four mail servers in our MX records and our Domino server as the fifth. We have been using both mail servers and it is working out well in the first few weeks.  Every day, I find myself looking in my Notes mail less and less.


However, we plan to continue using our Notes / Domino environment.  One reason is that it stands ready to be our disaster recovery plan should we need to shut down Google messaging.    Though we like the benefits of cloud computing, our core strategy is that we could have our mission critical applications (messaging, calendaring, CRM, financial) within our control.  By that, I mean two of these applications run on our internal systems and the two that Google currently runs (Messaging and Calendaring) can be brought in house within a short period of time (the time it takes for the MX records propagation)

One of benefits of using Google for messaging is that the amount of time I check SPAM is significantly less.  Before this change, I was checking an average of 200 SPAM messages daily.  Now, it is averages less than 50.  I believe that one reason for this is that I only used my primary e-mail address in Google.  The other e-mail addresses I'd set up over the years in Notes (e.g. bob.gepfert@ardentraining.com) go to our Notes server.  There have only been one or two false positives in my Notes mail so far.  I have also removed alias e-mails from our Domino server document. 

In our advance research, there were warnings against moving your domain registration to Google.  We heeded that advice.  We continue using Network Solutions as or domain service.

To our pleasant surprise, we have not had to spend much time so far learning the new interface.  We quickly found that folders are called labels (though Google's storage of an e-mail means that a document can appear in different "labels").  The time saved by being able to more quickly log in off site (we use VPN for our accessing our Notes messaging when off site) has been helpful.  


One disadvantage I have found so far is lack of stationary in Google Mail (or at least I have not figured it out yet).  My work around has been to create a draft and cut and past from a sent mail document.

I like seeing the pictures of individuals in the mail document (for those who have Google mail and have a picture).

From a training perspective, we purchased a manual from ElementK.  Though our current usage is equal to the capabilities we used in Notes, we are looking for greater productivity from Google Applications.  As such, we will become students of Google Applications through various learning options (the ElementK manual, the videos and articles and Google, mentoring sessions, lunch and learns, and group training).  

One example of this is that we did not use chat before (though it a feature in Notes).  Though we only use it once or twice a day, it has been a less obtrusive way for our employees to quickly touch base on something without having to interrupt a co-worker in their office.


Another example is that we found we could create a web based form for class evaluations in a short period of time (less than 30 minutes).  Having the template creator in Google made it much easier than our past options (creating it in Domino or HTML).


Being that the software is continually being updated, we have found some of the functions in printed material in the manual are different in the current version.  This is to be expected with cloud applications. 

I hope this article gives you some additional ideas to help you.

Are the Cloud Applications a better option ?

Experiences with Cloud Software Applications


In a conversation earlier this week with one of our customers, the discussion about their conversion to a cloud messaging environment came about.   This company, with around 200 e-mail users, migrated to Google Mail about eighteen months ago.  The individual with whom I was in conversation (who is a systems administrator for the organization) said that their experience has been good.  A key benefit for him has been that it has significantly lessened the time he spends supporting their messaging environment.  He also noted that the spam filtering is better than what they experienced with their previous messaging environment.


He (Mike), the systems administrator, is a low key person (common for that role).  As such, it was interesting to hear his enthusiasm for the use of Google Mail.  


One disadvantage that Mike pointed out is getting scanning to work properly with Google Mail.


This company has also moved to Salesforce.com for their CRM application.


As a result of moving these applications off their internal infrastructure, Mike said his time now is primarily focused on supporting their network, desktops and laptops.


This situation is playing out at many small and medium size companies across the globe. As more and more companies move to using applications that are stored and accessed by cloud service providers, the need for time administering internal servers continues to reduce at an exponential rate.


Another cloud application we see numerous small businesses use is e-mail marketing software.  Having hosted several Constant Contact training sessions over the past few quarters, I was struck by how many of the participants worked for businesses with less than ten (10) employees.  


I asked the Constant Contact trainer about this.  He said that most all of their customers are small businesses.  In fact, he said most all their clients have fewer than ten (10) employees.  Being that Constant Contact has hired numerous individuals in the past two years, this is a testament to how quickly use of this cloud application has spread to thousands of small businesses - of which we are one.


We have been using Constant Contact software for about a year.  To date, we have not found any significant limitations for our use.  For our business, it is much easier than managing an in-house software application to do this work.  We have been pleased with the functionality of the product.


This brings us to the main question for this post:  Are the Cloud Applications a better option ?


Based upon what we are seeing with our client base, our experience is that many of the cloud applications significantly ease the maintenance of software for small businesses (some who do not have any I.T. staff).  Though some large organizations have migrated to Google Mail (University of Michigan, BASF, CapGemini), the decision making is more in-depth due to data integration, security concerns, and other factors.  For our medium size clients, the due diligence does not have to be as in depth as for a Fortune 500 company, but much greater than the week or two that many small businesses spend before switching.

 Improving IT Training Results

Training for technical IT staff remains a key way to increase productivity and morale. Some times, I hear from our clients the dismay in their voice when they say that they have no budget for training. Consequently, when monies become available, I hear the enthusiasm in their voice about the possibilities for them.

From the employee perspective, they see that new skills may help them be able to increase their wages and market value.  Employers can benefit equally as well as they can raise retention rates and productivity.

  

As companies get more savvy with their training expenditures, they realize more clearly the need to individualize training. Some are disciplined enough to take a high level assessment of the expected positive impact on the business of any investment. Once done, then the selection of appropriate learning methods begin. 

Let's look at three general methodologies by looking at example individuals.

The first is for the more disciplined person who has a strong need for autonomy in learning. We'll call this person Akmad Autonomy.  Generally, Akmad will do well by studying on his own (books, e-learning programs, white papers, etc.).  Some times he needs the support of a mentor for some of his training time.  One key here is to provide some work time for self study and to monitor progress so as to help Akmad get the training done in the allotted time.

Though it beguiles me, some individuals (think: photographic memory) can sit and listen to a long lecture and "get it".  We'll call this person Pinxu Photographic.  Audiotapes and lecture oriented training work well for this individual. Most all of us are amazed at how Pinxu does it.

Our third person is Molly Multiple.  Molly does best when using a multiple of learning methods.  If she is disciplined enough, she will study on her own.  Then she may work with some peers.  Then she may participate in a program lead by an expert in which she works hands on for a good percentage of this training.


Keep in mind, that all learners work best by spacing out the time between learning sessions.  This allows both time to use what has been learned and time for the brain to let it sink in.

Key Skills for Information Technology Professionals - 
How up to date are your technical skills ?


Virtualization

If you are a network administrator and do not have skill with virtualizing servers, you are becoming a minority.  Even some of the small companies for whom we provide training have virtualized their server environment.

Those who are versed at virtualization have come to appreciate the ease of being able to quickly move and back up servers.

We are starting to see some of our customers integrate desktop virtualization into their infrastructure.  We feel this trend is at the early stages.  You may soon be tasked with learning this element as well - if you have not already.

Mobile Applications Development

In the past four quarters, we have had requests for individuals who can develop applications for mobile phones and tablets.

Java and C++ programmers have a head start in this arena. Porting their skills to developing applications for Droid and Apple devices is a shorter route than for those without these programming skills.

Being that Windows Mobile applications use software that many businesses already own (e.g. SQL server) and play on skills they already have (e.g. .Net programming), we project that this tool will be readily used by business.

Your best bet here is to volunteer for a mobile development project to see how it uses your current skills and / or develop a test application on your own.

We expect to see that those who have skill developing and maintaining mobile applications will have strong job security for at least the next three to five years. 

Managing Projects

We continue to see clients who are losing money and missing deadlines on projects. They realize their staff needs stronger skills to improve their ability to get projects done on time and within the allotted budget.

We normally see two problems.  One is that there is no clear (and experienced) project manager assigned to manage the engagement.  The second is that individuals who are not well versed in managing projects or lack the sufficient time to do so (e.g. a business analyst, a programmer) are assigned the responsibility. 

Those individuals who have augmented their primary skill (e.g. network administrator, systems analyst) with project management skills are ahead of the pack.

Security

For a moment, think in general terms about cyber criminals.  In simple terms, they hire individuals to spend their days stealing worthwhile data (e.g. bank account numbers, social security numbers) that they resell.  They develop a business that reaps substantial profits - especially if your labor costs for the hackers is done by individuals in a low labor area whom they pay on a commission basis (e.g. $$$ for each social security number). It is a clean business with low costs of entry.

You, on the other side of the fence, are fighting against these thousands of cyber criminals.  They have more time than most of you do to study and improve their skills.  

Now that high profile breaches have been in the news, we in the industry are more keenly aware of the need to fight on this crime front. It is a battle that invigorates many of us "good guys".

We project that individuals who are well versed in helping keep information technology environments secure (or at least more secure than their neighbors) will be in demand for at least the next five years - and probably longer.  Think about how many years the policing authorities have been fighting against illegal drug trafficking. 

Making sense out of the terabytes of information

For those of you familiar with Dunnhumby, you know how fast they are growing.  And what is it they do.  One of the key things they do is help companies like Kroger and Tessco hone their marketing initiatives to increase sales.  They are smart about business intelligence.

Now that many companies have terabytes of information about their customers, they are continuing to work to get more clarity on how to use this information to more effectively reach and help their customers.  That is where you come in.  If you are good at using business intelligence tools (e.g. Microstrategy), they want you.  Again, like the need for I.T. security professionals, the demand for business intelligence experts should be healthy for years to come.