Amanda, Author at Certes

Technology is equipping learners with the ability to work effectively and access resources on the move, but it’s not just students that can benefit

Technology is changing every industry and vocation, meaning students must be equipped with the skills to take ownership of their own learning and adapt to the current trends in the world of work.

Just as businesses have implemented the cloud to empower their employees with added resources and flexibility, schools must also adopt similar solutions to prepare their students for the future.

While giving students hands-on experience of modern technology is important from a development perspective, the expectations of digitally native learners means education institutions must deploy the right solutions now in order to stay relevant. As competition to recruit students increases, academies and universities in particular are turning to technology to differentiate.

Anywhere learning

As a starting point, with today’s students used to consuming online services through a range of different devices, there is a growing expectation for schools and universities to deliver their resources in a similar way. While the majority of universities have provided course materials online for some time, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

As cloud computing is particularly useful for supporting multiple devices, education providers should aim to provide the majority of their services using this technology, allowing students to work effectively whether on smartphone, laptop or tablet.

For example, by having access to all systems on all devices, students can access reading materials, edit documents or submit assignments in any context they choose – whether this is during the commute to class or during an unexpected quiet period.

In addition to expanding the amount of time available for learning, this also removes limitations on the level of resources at any given time, enabling students to access more information based on the direction of their research.

This way, students will be able to input new ideas depending on where their research takes them and learn how to find the answers from themselves.

However, this does not just benefit the students’ alone. To give an example, Sorring Skole, a primary school in Demark has brought in Chromebooks for the third to sixth grade to take the learning experience to the cloud.

By hosting documents and learning materials on a cloud server, teachers have been able to access data from practically anywhere, enabling more efficient assessment and appraisal processes, and removing the risk of lost documents or results.

Teachers can also provide feedback over cloud services, enabling a quicker turn around on marking materials, freeing up time for teachers to concentrate on educating rather than administrate tasks.

As a result, by selecting systems that give users secure access to their data and applications wherever they are, the cloud can provide an enhanced learning experience while reducing demands on staff services.

Learning across boundaries

In addition to providing flexibility on devices and location, the cloud enables teams to work together in ways that were never possible before. For example, by using services that enable multiple users of a single document, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office, this can enable teams of students from within a classroom, or from across the world, to work on the same project.

By becoming a member of a virtual team, students can experience a range of different cultures and influences, setting up a more immersive and innovative learning environment.

Through the introduction of AV technology provided through the cloud, teachers also have the ability to interact with their counterparts across the world, in order to share methods and information, or even introduce guest lecturers into lessons via video conferencing.

For example, by working with institutions overseas, teachers will be able to provide virtual tours of distant locations or host Q&A sessions with experts on certain topics. As a result, in addition the providing flexibility, utilising cloud technology can also create a much more diverse learning experience, which provides students with new avenues to exercise their team-working abilities.

By having the tools to enhance collaboration in this way, teachers will be better equipped to train their students for the demands on the workplace, while having the ability to inspire debate amongst the students themselves.

Keep IT simple

Aside from the direct educational benefits, the arrival of cloud technology also creates huge benefits for the IT departments from an economic perspective. By utilising off-premise computing power, IT departments within education institutions are able to free up their server from the burden of maintaining databases, running applications and storing information – effectively expanding the capabilities of their own PCs.

By moving standard services such as email and ERP systems to the cloud, this can free up more resources to concentrate key functions such as research and education meaning resources are used much more efficiently. As software on the cloud is also delivered through flexible subscriptions, this means it is often cheaper than upfront licenses and leaves.

Of course, in order for this to be successful, the cloud solutions and devices that are chosen must be easy to use and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the business, while having a high level of security credentials.

When looking for solutions, education providers should therefore consider which operating systems would be the most user-friendly, which classroom management tools are required and what level of support is required to support these cloud systems.

With the right mix of mobile devices and cloud software, schools and universities will have the tools to prepare the students for the future.

Source: Information Age

Technology has predominantly been a male dominated area with women being the minority, only accounting for 17% of all tech jobs in the UK. This decreases further when looking at women in managerial positions. For industry diversity, these stats don’t look too great. However, 2016 shows some positivity in women in the tech industry.

A report from Computer Weekly explains that one in five tech jobs are held by a woman and women with senior roles have doubled to 7% in 2016 from 3% in 2015.

“A further 6 per cent of women in tech are Directors or VPs of technology, 2 percent are Managing Directors, and 5 per cent of women in tech hold a C-level job title. Add these senior leadership roles together and you have 20 percent of women surveyed operating at the top of their profession.”

ComputerWeekly

“Women are still the minority”

Compared to 2015, 2016 IT contractor roles have risen from 25% to 32%, an increase that has doubled year-on-year.

What is noticeable with the improving environment of women in the IT industry is that nearly half the women working in IT work within government or private sector companies (49%). This is more than their male counterparts who account for 46%.

In management level roles, women are marginally ahead of men. 32% of women are in high-level roles within IT. Men account for 31%. This shows that more women are holding senior positions in IT than ever then they did in previous years.

The figures may seem like woman and men are working in an equal playing field in IT, but women are still the minority in each level. Positive changes are being made though as it is predicted by the end of 2016, less than 25% of IT roles will be held by women, in developed countries.

Whoever, because of the nature of the IT industry, there is growing potential for more women to be involved. Currently, the IT industry is suffering from a skills shortage and employing more skilled women for positions could kill two birds with one stone, improve gender diversity in the IT sector and fill job demands.

“What’s more, the UK tech industry is in the midst of a skills shortage – one that shows no signs of abating. Last year alone there were 900,000 IT-related job vacancies in the EU. With increasing demands for talent, it’s clear that getting more women into tech, and then getting them to stay, is something we’re all vested in.”

Huffington post

In a recent blog from Certes, we talked about Generation Y also known as Millennials and how employers can recruit and retain them.

A report from Software Advice, a company that offers listings and reviews of the top recruiting software systems, continues this discussion with what Millennials really want. As software Advice explains “The “Greatest Generation” primarily sought stability, only changing jobs a few times in their lives. The “baby boomers” and “Generation X” became more restless, holding an average of about 11 jobs in a lifetime”. Millenials employment patterns however are different than that of the previous generations and can hold up to 20 different jobs. This goes with what we mentioned and that “Millenials will often move on if they don’t feel like they are being listened to, challenged or given enough responsibility”.

From a sample of 1355 Millennias, Software Advice came back with some interesting finds.

What Gen Y Really Wants in a Job

Salary and Benefits – Money is still an incentive but 34% Millennials are moving more towards ‘Salary and benefits’

Culture and Atmosphere – 31% of Millennials say they need to like where they work

Fulfillment and Satisfaction – 30% of Millennials say they need to enjoy what they do

Growth and Development – 25% of “Millennials say growth and development is important. Software Advice accredits this to Millenials …“are, by definition, on the younger side of the age spectrum: many cited a desire for “learning” or to gain more on-the-job “experience,” and noted they wanted to “advance [their] career.”

Software Advice concludes their findings with “What Gen Y really wants is to make a good living—but these young professionals also want to find happiness, fulfillment and opportunity in their work, and to build the foundation for a career that rewards in ways beyond the mere financial.”

‘Managed Services’ has become somewhat of a buzzword, with article headlines urging companies to move towards what they call the ‘modern model’. But underneath the entire buzz, for many of us, the question still remains– what are managed services and what are they good for? This is the question we at Certes will aim to answer clearly and in enough depth to give you a better grasp of how managed services work and the pros and cons for both clients and providers.

In a nutshell, a managed IT service is an information technology task provided by a third-party contractor for a client organisation. Managed services can be tailored to almost any business requirement within IT. Managed Services frequently comprise running applications, databases, data recovery and back-up, network management, storage, security, and monitoring. However, not all managed services are technology-based, despite that being the most widespread use of the term. At its most basic level, a managed service is an outsourced business need which may even cover things like marketing and transportation.

A managed IT service comes with a service-level agreement (SLA), which is the contract between the service provider and the customer. The SLA identifies what services the provider will supply and how successful delivery of services will be measured.

Within this model, the client owns or has direct oversight of their organisation or system. The managed services provider (MSP) is the service provider delivering the managed services. The client and the MSP enter into a contractual, service-level agreement that defines the performance and quality metrics of their relationship.

What are the benefits of Managed Services?

Enabling business agility and adaptation. Managed services are emerging as an invaluable strategic asset that aids enterprises in adapting more quickly to changes in the market. This is achieved by allowing quick access to new capabilities via cloud services, such software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS). In addition, access to data and analytics is enabling enterprises to better assess current and future business needs.

Optimising productivity and performance. While managed services open doors to accessing specific talent, cloud capabilities help to improve employee productivity and efficient use of resources. Cloud capabilities are also utilised to focus enterprise needs by requirements of each business unit and specific systems of engagement (e.g., sales, marketing, customer support).

Ensuring integrated, end-to-end “hybrid” IT service delivery and management. Companies also are using managed services as a way of receiving support across a hybrid of IT linking traditional delivery models and up-and-coming cloud-based options, which are far more automated.

Pros and Cons of Managed Services

Pros

Because the provider is responsible for the delivery and management of stakeholder expectations, the client business can fully focus on their core strategic initiatives
Providers can have more autonomy and benefit from a fairly disturbance-free supervision of the project.
Providers will be able to make long-term strategic investments that should indirectly benefit the client organization.
Providers are able to implement their best practices into the project, and therefore make key process improvements rather than having to fit into a rigid existing framework.
Knowledge retention becomes more streamlined and sustainable.

Cons

Providers can be disinclined to take on additional management duties
There can be a culture incompatibility between the client and provider organisations which can lead to a lack of understanding or a breakdown of collaboration between the two, which in turn can have an impact on outputs and deliverables
In some situations, because they are external to the organisation, providers will not be able to understand all of the client organisation’s problems, pain points and worries. They may also struggle to fully grasp the scope of the project, which might result in significant delays and setbacks.
Where there are multiple managed service providers, with each managing a different part of the organisation’s IT requirements, it is not uncommon to find an approach of shifting blame, with providers being unwilling to take responsibility for disappointments and failures.
Despite process improvements bringing great benefits, a potential disadvantage of such improvements is a reduction in the number of people necessary to support the project. This is a drawback for the providers who may lose out on billing due to a reduced requirement of service.
The client may wish or need to re-allocate the contract to a new managed services provider, perhaps in part due to issues in performance or the SLA not being honoured. This is likely to become a significant challenge for the client, because the existing provider may become hostile or less co-operative.

On the whole, managed services are a great asset to any modern organisation, with opportunities to benefit in a multitude of ways. An MSP can lead to significant reductions in costs. Most providers will charge an upfront fee and then an ongoing fixed monthly fee, which provides clients with a set monthly expenditure, making financial planning much easier. Outsourcing managed services also allows business owners to reduce the cost of employees working in-house as well as the technology, tools, and other resources needed to handle the tasks.

Secondly, the managed service provider will bring the knowledge, expertise and experience in their service offering that will enable increased accuracy and decreased risk and liabilities, especially since they have to ensure compliance with government regulations and various industry standards.

Third, the MSP will have the tools, technology, and resources required to improve efficiencies by streamlining procedures and various processes. This can then lead to increased transparency and better understanding, which will then provide a foundation for stronger decision making based on factual, real-time statistics and information.

Content: Share This

The recruitment industry is seeing some significant growth in both people working within recruitment to permanent and temporary staff working with recruitment agencies. With Turnovers of £3 Billion and £28.5 Billion for Permanent and Temporary recruitment respectively, 2015 has been an exceptional year for recruitment.

What's also worth noting, the Computer and IT is the sector that is generating the most revenue permanent areas, generating £525 million.

Source: REC

The IT function has been marked by a change of approach over the last decade – from responsive to adaptive – as a more predictive business world has emerged

CIOs have striven to make their IT functions flexible in nature as they constantly adapt to new operating environments and new business models. This is not enough.

If you consider the development of technology as a natural progression, then IT needs to become more predictive in nature. It must have the ability to inform the business it serves and be 100% data driven.

But it’s not quite there yet. With data capture from an increasingly diverse range of sensor-driven devices on the rise and a plethora of data sources available, the opportunity to derive insight from relevant data needs to be seized more widely by businesses.

The benefits of a more predictable future based on data are clear, primarily because it will enable more long-term thinking in terms of investment and risk-taking.

Remote connection to devices

Collecting data from devices and ‘remoting-in’ is a key foundation for this move. The concept of ‘remoting into’ another device has existed for the last 20 years or more. However, the future of remoting-in will not be limited to the typical use cases of remote support and remote access we see and read about now.

Instead, it is set to become a ‘connected state’ in which any smart device can connect to another smart device in a seamless and secure way, providing access and data exchange at the click of a button.

Indeed, as more and more devices become smart and IP-enabled, the world of connections opens up exponentially but also becomes increasingly complex.

Keeping track and control in a secure way will be essential. As such, the goal for IT in general over the next few years will be to make it as easy to ‘remote into’ a refrigerator, car, MRI scanner, parking metre, industrial sewing machine or fish-feeding controller as it is to a colleague’s iPhone or Android phone today. The collection of vital data will be a key building block for more predictive computing in future.

Remotely connecting people to people

Beyond the devices, businesses also need to ensure their people are better connected as well. Collaborative technologies are enabling ways of working which we were unable to conceive of a generation ago.

However, there is still room for significant improvements in connectivity, reliability and enterprise scalability.

In the coming years, there will be dramatic improvements in collaborative technologies, leading to more effective meetings and sessions across increasingly dispersed and remote teams, with hassle-free access from any smart device.

Regardless of sector or application, predictability of connection, quality of video and immediacy of chat are just some of the capabilities that will be key to these technologies. No less than total reliability is acceptable.

This will not just be the preserve of mid-sized and large-scale organisations, but will actually enable new consumption-based cost models to emerge and be the key to mass adoption.

The internet of consumption

The increasing importance of remote connections and data-driven IoT devices could be seen clearly at the latest Consumer Electronics Show, where the most advanced IoT devices were being showcased.

There was a particular focus on smart homes, the fitness industry and connected automobiles. This lends credence to the fact that the consumer space is where most of the hype is.

However, while this is pretty interesting and will begin to affect us all in one way or another over the next few years, the consumer hype doesn’t give the complete story. For B2B companies, the opportunity is equally significant, if a little more pragmatic.

For businesses, IoT opens up the possibility for new business models and ways to make money. Being able to connect, monitor and control remote devices will allow organisations to rethink their pricing strategies and take advantage of new revenue streams.

For example, an industrial sewing machine manufacturer now has the capability of selling smart machines to clothing manufacturers that can be monitored, upgraded and analysed on a real-time basis.

This opens up the potential to charge customers in a different way, such as by needle use, idling time and total usage time. This is effectively a more consumption-based pricing model, as exemplified by so many software vendors these days.

There are many examples where IoT can be practically implemented in such “heavy metal” industries that will provide new revenue streams for manufacturers.

The transition from the current legacy devices or machines to the new smart devices will require expertise and help from vendors that understand how devices are connected to each other over a secure transport layer. We will see rapid adoption within this B2B area over the next few years.

Virtual and augmented reality

A final consideration is virtual and augmented reality technology. Both are entering the maturation stage and will become increasingly relevant in the business world in the coming year.

The concept of remoting-in will be very relevant here. Virtual reality (VR) has been gaining serious traction over the past year and the increasing availability of VR apps and VR headsets is popularising it as a concept. VR’s importance is ramping up in the gaming sector but also in sports and other branches of entertainment.

VR’s work-related sibling, augmented reality (AR), is just beginning to see traction in the market. Over the next few years, more and more enterprises will look to enable their ‘deskless’ professionals with a new compute paradigm that helps them become more productive and solve issues on the ground, at the front line.

Indeed, mainstream manufacturers such as Microsoft and Google have committed to producing devices that deliver a new user experience, and specialists like Atheer Labs are well on the way to getting adoption of AR devices in the workplace.

An increasing number of B2B companies will look to implement AR-based support for their workers and will require sophisticated software to maintain and deliver an advanced user experience leading to greater productivity and more accurate operations. In essence, more predictive outcomes.

IT is on a rapid and exciting journey at the moment. As endpoints generate an increasing amount of data that needs to be remotely managed and monitored, businesses are waking up to the fact that it needs to be accessible and aggregated.

Data analytics needs to bring insight and from that allow decision-making to be more predictive and less based on intuition, gut or some view of the past.

Source: InformationAge

Having recruited IT & Business Project Managers for the last 12 years I am constantly reminded of the benefits of talking face to face instead of over the phone, email or Skype.

While meeting with these project managers does provide a significant insight into their approach to project delivery, I am not referring to that on this occasion. Instead, I am referring to the value that project managers achieve from getting out from behind their desk to actually sit with and meet those awkward team members or challenging suppliers. Of course, Skype and conference calls have their place in today’s businesses but when I look back over the years or even recent weeks to some of the strongest project managers I’ve met with, all of them have spoken of the value of meeting face to face. I called some of them to discuss this blog and to ask why they make the time for meeting face to face even when it can be more expensive in terms of time, cost or just the inconvenience involved. The reasons below were stated by all of the project managers I spoke with recently as to why they make time for face to face meetings when necessary:

Helps to ensure engagement – Who knows what people are doing on conference calls when not speaking (you might not want to!!)
Drives participation – When in the same room it encourages people to participate. You can’t turn your back which is what happens throughout conference calls
More efficient – face to face there is greater pressure to get to the point
Clarifies meaning – It can be much harder to raise your hand to ask for clarification on a matter than it is in person
Body Language – We tend to forget that body language plays a major part in communication. This is lost on a phone call or email

How many of you value a face to face meeting and when was the last time you ran one? If the answer is not recently then I would challenge you to meet your toughest stakeholders and project team member to improve the relationship.

The enigma of Millennials is one that is in the forefront of every employers mind. Times are changing and companies will largely consist of this new generation in the years to come, with 75% of the workforce being made up of Millennials by 2025.

We have discussed what millennials really want in the workplace and briefly touched upon how managers can recruit and retain this up and coming breed of employees. So what else can employers do to ensure that millennials are kept happy and remain loyal?

Provide structure. Millennials were raised and are accustomed to structure; they expect this to be commonplace in the workplace. Employers should define clear and consistent job assessment criteria’s.

Provide leadership and guidance. Millennials prefer to follow leaders who are honest and treat them with respect. One of their strongest traits is that they welcome and expect regular, detailed feedback and to be praise for a good job. Millennials want know the ‘in’s and out’s’ of what is going on in the working environment. Employers should spend time coaching and guiding millennials which will keep millennials engaged in their work. Leadership and guidance will develop millennials enabling them to acquire new skills and abilities which they strive for.

Help millennials to grow. Working alongside providing leadership and guidance, managers need to really understand the personal and professional goals of millennials. Rotate assignments more frequently to give them a sense that they are moving toward something and gaining a variety of experiences. Challenge them to come up with new ways to streamline processes and to exercise creativity.

Millenials are team players. They are used to working in groups and teams, in contrast to the lone wolf of previous generations. They believe a team can accomplish more than working seperately. They are natural collaborators, particularly when the group’s purpose and goals are understood.

Listen to the millennial employee. These young adults have ideas and opinions, and don't take kindly to having their thoughts ignored. Millennials can provide you with a fresh pair of eyes and could come with useful idea’s that the other generations may have failed to see.

Take advantage of millennial technological literacy. Not all employees will be up to date with the latest communication trends, allow Millennials to share their technological knowledge to other generations in the workplace.

Provide a life-work balanced workplace. Millennials are looking for a good work/life balance. They work hard, but they are deterred by working unsociable hours. Millennials want to be able to work in the way that suits them best. Their extensive use of technology means that the line between work and home has become increasingly blurred, although many would prefer to work in an office than alone. In short millennials want flexibility in their jobs.

Provide a fun workplace. Millennials want to enjoy where they work. An environment that is comfortable and creative. This type of employee-focused environment may seem like an indulgence, but it is actually good for retention – and good for business because engaged employees are more productive.

Expect millennials to go: Like it or not, milleninials have a higher turnover rate than other generations, staying with a company for an average of 2 years. Many have made compromises in finding their first job, and this should be built into your plans. But if managers treat millennials well then they may have a higher chance of retaining them for years to come.

Social media has mad a giant impact on recruiting and recruiters are using social media to gain insights into potential candidates.

Source: Undercover Recruiter

The UK has some hidden gems, and some not-so-hidden gems, in terms of its technological hubs. From Manchester to Bath, Lilli Hender of OfficeGenie.co.uk explores the country’s finest offerings in the tech sector:

London

It’ll come as no surprise to find London is the leading the way in terms of tech development. Contributing a turnover in excess of £150 billion annually, it’s one of the most lucrative markets in the city, in the country, and even in Europe.

East London, and specifically the Silicon Roundabout is the place to be when it comes to the latest technological advancements. Financial technology, digital media and social networks are the primary presence, with the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook cohabiting the space. FinTech has taken centre stage in recent years: ayondo and TransferWise now call London home for example.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, cites “diversity and entrepreneurial spirit” as the driving forces behind the continued success of London’s tech evolutions.

Bristol & Bath

Often grouped together due to their 12-mile proximity and similar technological focusses, Bristol and Bath are places to watch if you’re interested in educational and scientific tech. Sharing the Science Park, the two cities have everything from laboratories to coworking hubs to aid innovation and help businesses develop.

Another important part of the scene is gaming: Xmos, Tribal Group and Opposable Games have all chosen to take up residence in the South West of the country. There are plenty of incubators and investors to hand too: the Temple Meads station in Bristol is a prime location, and Eden Ventures (an early-stage investor in tech) can be found in Bath.

Reading, Bracknell & Wokingham

Another Bristol and Bath set up, Reading, Bracknell and Wokingham are quickly becoming known as prime technological locations. Data, software and security are the county’s emerging specialisms: Fantoo and Agilent Technologies are just two examples of the high-power companies committed to the area.

In 2015, 20% of the businesses in the area were technology based. It’s a thriving source of strength for the local economy, and the advancements made can be felt nationwide. With London a half-hour train journey away, technological companies here can also make the most of the capital.

Manchester

You’d be mistaken if you thought the home of technology is the South of England. Manchester is just one of several Northern cities making a name for itself on the tech scene. Digital media and marketing are the most prominent specialities: the BBC has called Manchester its home since 2011; and Autotrader and moneysupermarket.com have similarly pitched their tents.

In terms of employment numbers, the city only loses out to London for direct employment in tech. When property prices and living costs are significantly lower than those in the capital, it’s easy to see why entrepreneurs have seized the great opportunity Manchester offers.

Cambridge

Silicon Fen might not sound as impressive as Silicon Roundabout (or Silicon Valley for that matter), but Cambridge has long made its mark on the tech sector. Silicon Fen has a focus on software and electronics: ARM, one of the world’s leading creators of microchips and mobile processors, has its HQ firmly located in the Cambridgeshire fenlands.

The company names Genestack and Novus Biologicals give a clue as to the other prime industry: medical and pharmaceutical tech. Housed in the Science Park and brimming with Cambridge University researchers, these companies are making important advancements every day.

Author bio:

Lilli Hender writes for Cambridge-based online marketplace OfficeGenie.co.uk: offering desk and office space solutions for companies nationwide.