Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom IT Amps Up to Meet Business Priorities

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom IT Amps Up to Meet Business Priorities One of the most intriguing sections of Deloitte’s new Tech Trends 2016: Innovating in the Digital Era report discussed the right speed for IT. Moving beyond the current, hyped-up two speed approach, the report highlighted speed-related considerationsCIOs must take into account: business process-related, architectural, and organizational. The tension between the need for stability and agility has resulted in the widely recommended two-speed (or bimodal) methodology for IT. “On one side are the predictability and controls necessary to manage risk while delivering large-scale enterprise IT with reliability, scalability, security, etc.,” said the report. “On the other is the push to drive discovery and experimentation around new features, tools, and technologies.” However, according to Deloitte, in proposing the bimodal theory we may have oversimplified the conflict between these extreme sides. At the same time, we’ve offered little guidance on managing the unavoidable gap between the two priorities. Many organizations are coming to terms with the idea that different types of business requirements require different speeds and IT must support a continuum. The Deloitte report offered these considerations for CIOs to keep in mind when forming expectations around speed. Business Process Considerations Finance management:Budgeting, prioritization, allocations, and accounting treatments all need more flexibility than annual appropriations, rigid planning cycles, and depreciation schedules do. Failure to address the differences in time-consuming finance management processes as part of an overall right-speeding initiative is a missed opportunity. Procurement and sourcing:Similarly, multi-month RFP processes, drawn-out vendor assessments, and sourcing strategies focused on cost takeout are sometimes appropriate. But they also are not the only game in town. Codify paths to adopt open-source solutions such as platforms, libraries, and code-bases that could jumpstart efforts. Vendor and contract management:Revisit nondisclosures, intellectual property protection clauses, and traditional segmentation of provider tiers. Consider creating new categories of engagement that can be deployed against efforts beyond simple fixed-scope and traditional service-level agreements. Encourage value-based arrangements where vendors are compensated based on outcomes. Solution shaping:Beyond determining the recommended end-to-end architecture, ascertain the appropriate speed for a given project or product. Offer the team guardrails as they combine governance, controls, delivery model, enabling processes, and stage gates to balance business impact, technical vision, and risk. Stakeholder communications and expectation management:Don’t hold back for a large periodic release. Instead, increase the number of releases or user previews to demonstrate progress. Gamify testing and reward members of the user community for providing feedback. Even if these releases are not destined to be put into production immediately, providing users and stakeholders with evidence of tangible progress can make the process seem quicker. DevOps:Try to determine the granularity of control points, formality of reviews, and the appropriate level of automation that will be needed for the effort. Right-speed IT efforts often coincide with investments in autonomic platforms that can help move more of IT’s underlying workload to labor-free, seamless tasks (or at least introduce automation to eliminate waste in the end-to-end lifecycle). For more insights from the Deloitte report, head over to the QuickBase Fast Track blog.

Salary Negotiation Tips

Salary Negotiation Tips My summer reading includes career books, and I recently checked out Salary Negotiation Tips for Professionals  by Ron Caryl  Krannich, Ph.D.s.   Here is the first of  three mistakes they say many professionals make when negotiating salary offers.  Mistake #1:   Accepting an offer primarily because of compensation. There are many high paid professionals who are miserable in their work.   If you consider yourself underpaid, it may sound like a paradox, but the syndrome even has a name: golden handcuffs. The Kranniches  say that many people become dazzled by a high salary and don’t do enough probing to find out if the job is a good match for their interests and skills.   You may think that being bored at $25 an hour sounds like a good problem to have.   But the long-term corrosive effects on your motivation and performance can do real harm to your career.   Conversely, a great job that pays less but stimulates you and has real meaning can be the best thing that could happen to you.     If you see a job that seems to be compensated at an unusually high rate, be sure to probe carefully in the interview.   In my experience, there are very few workers who are overpaid. If a job seems to be comparable to another with lower salary, you can almost bet that the higher paying job is faster paced, higher stress and higher stakes.   That’s OK; you just need to understand and be ready for that.

Have You Got What It Takes to Be Your Own Boss

Have You Got What It Takes to Be Your Own Boss Have you ever dreamt of being your own boss? Of ‘sticking it to the man’ and deciding your own hours, your own salary, and your own job role?The freedom to make your own rules and take charge of your own working life is hugely appealing, and it’s easy to see why.Just imagine it: no annoying co-workers complaining about mundane tasks, no office politics to tip-toe around, no morning traffic on your daily commute. It sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?evalBut, as most of us will have concluded as we shook this idyllic fantasy from our heads, it’s an enormous gamble with an arduous journey to success.Being your own boss means you take on all accountability for business decisions that are made, you take on the stress of being completely financially dependent on your job and its success â€" and to a lot of people, this is a frightening thought.You must be confident, self-reliant, time-efficient, business-savvy, well-organized, tactful, and, in some respects, ruthless.Ask yourself: do y ou have what it takes to be your own boss?Take a look at our quiz below to find out.Infographic Credit â€" tollfreeforwarding.com

Dos and donts of visa application processing - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

Dos and donts of visa application processing Whenever we are traveling abroad, we need to obtain a visa as a legal prerequisite to enter, stay and moving around in the foreign country. Generally, people visit foreign countries to avail better education, career and investment opportunity or to spend a holiday with their family and friends. Having considered such a great interest of people commuting abroad, nearly every country has established a legislative system to issue travel permits for everyone seeking to visit their country. The system has the authority to accept or reject any candidate, in case he fails to submit mentioned documents along with the form. Obtaining this travel permit is a prerequisite to commute across the borders of your territory. Applicants have to act carefully to fulfill this requirement. The process starts with submitting the application form after filling it right along with all the required documents. Candidates have to be very careful, while writing down their information, as even a single mistake is inevitable. Here I am sharing a few Do’s and Don’ts to consider that will help you to avoid mistakes easily while submitting your application form. The Dos Always ask total processing time with the Immigration Office to avoid any inconveniences. Every country has its own duration to complete the documentation process. Usually visit visa is quickly processed as compared to business and work visas. In order to avoid unpleasant delays, it is suggested to file an application at least three months earlier. Write out sensibly to avoid mistakes and make sure that application form doesn’t carry any wrong information. Be very careful while providing personal information. Don’t exaggerate and don’t mention things that don’t actually exist. Provide detail bio data, address and contact details to improve the credibility of your application. Incomplete or hazy information will get your application rejected, as authorities check and verify everything you wrote in the form. Check cautiously to provide complete documentation required. Whether you are submitting online or you are personally visiting the embassy to submit your application, it is essentially important to double check the documents required to submit with the application form. Generally attested copies are submitted with the form. Moreover, also check photo requirements, how many you need to submit with the form. Don’t print casual photos for this purpose. Ideally, the picture clearly reveals your facial features. Avoid wearing caps, scarves and hats while taking photos for such legal documentations. Furthermore, sign all the documents with your standard signature. The Don’ts Don’t hide or misinterpret any kind of information, truthfully mention everything, including the reason to visit any country. Don’t feel any embarrassment if you have an intention to avail career opportunity there. As all the information you provide will be verified, and once it proves wrong, you will be permanently banned to visit. Don’t attach wrong documents in case you are applying for work permit and thinking to add a list of certifications that you actually never pursued will let you face legal actions. So simply avoid adding such documents. Avoid being late, as it will delay the process, especially if you are visiting the Immigration Office for document verification. If there is some genuine reason making you late, don’t hesitate to call and inform them. Summary: Whether you are submitting application in a European country or you are going for visa processing, considering these do’s and Don’ts will facilitate you to complete the process efficiently. Author bio Jenessa Baxter is a Digital Marketer for  Ultimate HR Solutions  in Dubai. She writes about HR recruitment tips, leadership, HR Management and in particular UAE.

How to Get Professional Resume Writing Services in Birmingham Alabama

How to Get Professional Resume Writing Services in Birmingham AlabamaIf you want to get the very best and latest resume writing services in Birmingham Alabama, there are some things that you should remember. For example, you have to ensure that the resume is professionally formatted in a professional manner. The current employee should not have to wait months for the resume to be submitted because it is simply being put through an informal format that could have been improved upon.The resume of the job applicant should always be professionally written and formatted. The data in the resume should be structured properly, such as, using bullet points and using color coding, making sure that the resumes are completed in the proper order, properly. The student is entitled to ask the employer for a written test if the applicant is still studying, but they must be prepared for any test questions before the interview. This helps to show how prepared the student is to take the test, and will save a lot of time for the applicant.As you work on your student's resume, make sure that you can find all the information that you need to write. Take note of any essential requirements that the employer might have, such as training time, education required, and even experience and education that are important to the position. Write these in a way that you can easily find them, so that you do not forget any of these. Always ensure that the information that you put on the resume is accurate and up to date.Many students will not be able to sit down and look at their student's resume until several months after it has been submitted. To keep your application moving along at a quick pace, you should ensure that you have a professional resume writer. A resume writer should know how to create an efficient resume for you and ensure that it is updated in a timely manner. A resume should be full of information about the student that is relevant to the position that the student seeks.A resume should not contain data that is irrelevant to the job position that the student is seeking. Any resume should have information that is relevant to the position that the applicant is applying for. You should get as much information about the position as possible in the resume. It is the purpose of this document to attract an employer's attention to the applicant and ensure that they take the applicant seriously.Some companies' policy requires that the applicant provide two letters of reference from someone who knows the candidate well. In the case of the student applying for a position in a school, it is very important to get as many references as possible, and this is a good idea for the reason that they will be happy to read the references. Make sure that you avoid using school names in the references. If you need to include references, you can include the school name and state where the student is registered. The reasons for this are that the references must be written with the s tate, and this is best done by putting the name of the college or university rather than the name of the school.A professional resume writer in Birmingham Alabama can be found through online and off-line sources. The student's information should be accurate and the resume will help you in getting the job.