In times of recession – how does ITIL Service Management help to keep your good employees? April 14, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in business, itil, itsm.Tags: certification, crisis, customer service, economy, IT Service Management, itil, itsm, recession, service, service management, the art of service, value
2 comments
Today I was interviewed by somebody from the itSMF about trends in the ITSM education and training industry. Inevitably the questions go the the current economic climate and the position of education in all this.
To me this is really easy – but then again: I run an education company so I am slightly biased – ITSM education really helps organisations to make a difference. Note that I don’t say ‘training’ as I don’t have a lot of positive things to say about organisations who only focus on the training aspect.. teaching monkeys tricks… Of course there is a training aspect in each educational program but there is so much more to it! Being an educator means that you know your subject as well as have the ability to make people understand what this new theory means for them – in their working environment. You need to understand that it is NOT about you but about the students. Educating is more than presenting, it is about focusing on the needs and requirements of the students… constantly.
Anyway, stepping down from my soap box for a second here, I strongly feel that ITSM education can make the difference between an IT organisation that is subject to outsourcing or an IT group that adds value to the overall corporate goals. ITSM education make the difference to the individual wanting to get that new job, and helps to get passed by when the redundancies are handed out.
Like I said to the interviewer today; I am constantly looking for new staff. We filled 2 vacancies in March and are currently advertising for 2 additional vacancies. So I see my fair share of applications and resumes across my desk. In comparison to 12 months ago, we receive about 10x the amount of applicants but I can’t say that the overall quality of the applicants has risen. Mind you, there are still gems out there – and they stand out! But what I expected to see as a result of all these job cuts and redundancies was that a lot of highly skilled people with fantastic experience and backgrounds would be applying for jobs.. and I don’t see that at the moment. Not in Australia that is…
Why do I say this? Well, for highly competent – qualified and experienced ITSM staff members the jobs are still out there and it is easy to stand out among the other candidates. So adding ITSM certification to your resume could be a good thing for individual IT professionals.
On the other side – IT organisations can use ITSM education as a differentiator to maintain their high performing employees. Offering educational opportunities to them will make them highly productive in the work place – making sure the IT group can cope with the new requirements and added work pressures – but also happier employees as they know they are valued and continue to improve their skills and qualifications. This seems to be a way to retain your good employees. High performers want to be challenged, and constantly learning new things or improving current processes. ITSM education gives them the opportunity to do this. This ultimately saves you money through retention of your high performers and not having to look for new staff as well as an improved IT Service delivery mechanism.
Benefits no matter where you look! So, what’s keeping you from educating your staff?!
2 Most important things to stay in business while times are tough November 15, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in business.Tags: business, crisis, economy, fitness, flu, newspaper, success
add a comment
This is a very short post as I promised only 2 things… so here is comes:
1. STOP READING THE PAPERS AND FOCUS ON YOUR BUSINESS
I love this one as it is soooo true! The more time we spend on reading the articles in the paper with all the ‘doom & gloom’ stories, the more we are going to believe it. You become the bunny trapped in the headlights of oncoming traffic.
Also – the more time you spend reading the papers; both physical papers and all the news channels you subscribe to online… the less time you have to work on the business. And these are times to have laser vision focus!
2. JOIN THE GYM
Or at least start a program to stay fit! Your business needs you, more than ever. This week I spent 3 days at home with an amazing head-cold. I can’t remember the last time I was this sick and it involved every part of my body from the shoulders up. My brain didn’t function, my concentration was fuzzy at best, I couldn’t make decisions… it really affected my work.
So don’t give viruses and other germ a chance to grab hold of you: start a training program as if you’re preparing to run a marathon. You need stamina and a high level of overall fitness to run a business. When you’re tired and feeling run-down, that is when they will get to you. So start moving!
Good luck and have fun running a successful, focused business!
Revenue is great, but cash is king! October 10, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in business.Tags: business, Cash, creditor, crisis, economy, management, money, Sales
add a comment
For the past 18 months or so I have been trying to have ‘cash’ as our quarterly theme but for whatever reason, it didn’t really work. And to be honest, you don’t want staff members to be only money driven… so we came up with another solution! We didn’t start the business purely for the money, and clients would feel the shift in core values when the company turns to purely a money making machine…
To give you a bit of background: The Art of Service works with the ‘Rockefeller habits’ methodology and we try to have a Quarterly theme to help improve how the business is running. The last few quarterly themes were around internal processes (customer service and client relation) and teamwork. But really, when I look inside, as the owner of the business I know that at the end of the day it is really important to have enough cash in the bank to stay in business.
So a few months ago we started thinking about a cash based quarterly theme. You can’t ask people to just focus on money as that is NOT what we are about… we want to be the Framework educator of choice for IT Professionals. In order to do that we have a strong focus on customer service, on helping people to understand the frameworks and standards so they can grow professionally. The money is a result of this, but NOT the main focus!
So how do you increase cash without being in business for money alone? You look at your cash cycle (taken from the Rockefeller habits):
- How long does it take to close sales? And, how much money is involved in the sales process (COS – Cost of Sales)
- How long does it take to develop the product or deliver the service that was sold?
- How long does it take to receive the money AFTER you delivered the service (as most product sales will be Cash on delivery or pre-payment)
- The sales team is coming up with creative solutions to improve the conversion % and due to our improved relationship with the clients we better understand their procurement processes. We may not quote as early in the process so when we do, the conversion happens a lot quicker. We also looked at different sales channels that may improve the time it takes for people to buy/purchase.
- Our time to market is getting better and better! Being an expert in your field (and recognized as such) really helps with the ability to customize our product and service offerings to our clients in a really short time-frame. We also use different development tools and techniques to improve the overall time to market (think cloud computing, SaaS and web-presence)
- Accounts receivable and debt collection is not just a job for the finance department. Everybody is involved with coming up with ways to shorten the time it takes to get the cash in our bank. Current improvement projects are: correct invoicing, creative payment options, online sales (credit card payment), stricter follow up after payment terms have been exceeded.
