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Staff Augmentation Part 2 – 8 questions you must ask first

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LET’S ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES Now that we’ve learned a bit about what staff augmentation is, it’s time to ask a few questions to determine how we’ll know if it’s something we should consider. To kickstart the process, start by asking – and hopefully answering – the following to determine if staff augmentation should be on your business roadmap: 1 – Do you need to move quickly? If you’ve got a project on the books that needs to launch – and deliver – fast, it may not be feasible to directly hire a team of full-time developers and related resources. Similarly, you may not want to reallocate...

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Staff Augmentation 101 – what you need to know to get started

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TAMING THE TALENT MANAGEMENT TRAP As economic headwinds continue to strengthen amid stubbornly high inflation, rising inflation rates, and global economic uncertainty, organizations in all sectors – and particularly those with well-developed IT capabilities – are under increased pressure to be more effective, cost-conscious, and agile. Pulling off this often-contradictory trifecta can be a challenge, particularly considering how difficult it can be to hire the right people, train them up, and keep them resourced over time while continuously meeting ever-evolving business needs. This...

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Ukraine war holds critical cybersecurity lessons for all organizations

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THREATS THAT GO BACK YEARS The warnings have been building since long before Russian soldiers and weapons first began massing at the border, and the conclusions are stark. A report from Forrester in March concluded the invasion threatened to permanently alter the cyberthreat landscape; primarily as Russia accelerated its cyberattacks and cyber-espionage efforts to offset military losses and compensate for expanding economic sanctions. Forrester said Russian cyberattacks had been building for years, targeting Ukrainian financial systems and critical infrastructure. Forrester’s analysts...

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Tech sector layoffs hold sobering talent management lessons for HR

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HIGH-PROFILE JOB CUTS Meta eliminated about 13% – or 11,000 – of its salaried workforce. Salesforce pared 2,500 from its payroll, and Snap sent 6,000, of its employees packing. And even Microsoft and Amazon have been eliminating corporate roles through both layoffs and corporate attrition. Here in Canada, where STEP Software is based, Shopify, Hootsuite, and Wealthsimple have all made major headcount reductions in recent months` While these numbers are certainly eye-opening, they don’t come out of nowhere. We see three basic factors at play here: 1 – It’s part of...

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Twitter, Elon Musk, and a critical lesson for developers

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OUTSIDE EXPERTS Hidden in the rapid-fire series of headlines, tweets, kitchen sinks, and aborted verification checkmark introductions was a tiny tidbit of information around programming languages. When Mr. Musk first settled into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, CNBC reported he brought along a core team of software engineers and other staff from Tesla’s Autopilot autonomous vehicle team. According to CNBC, Musk has tasked this team to review Twitter’s source code and begin planning for a revamp of the entire platform. It is this decision that deserves to be studied more closely...

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Ransomware and remote workers: 8 tips to stay safe

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CYBERCRIMINALS ADAPT After millions of workers worldwide were sent home following the first wave of lockdowns in March 2020, cybercriminals shifted gears. Amid the chaos of those early days, as corporate IT focused on keeping remote workers productive, ransomware attacks skyrocketed, with the FBI reporting a 62% increase in ransomware reports in the first half of 2021 compared to the same year-ago period. This follows a 20% increase in 2020. None of this came as any surprise to those of us in IT; the pandemic opened the door and malicious actors were only too happy to walk through....

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Apple security update – 5 lessons for the hybrid workforce

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NEVER-ENDING WARNINGS After all, hardly a day goes by that we’re not receiving yet another warning that our favorite Windows PC, Android phone, Ring smart doorbell, or Roomba smart vacuum cleaner needs a software update to patch a weakness that seemingly came out of nowhere. We’ve become almost numb to the never-ending threat landscape, to the sky-is-falling warnings that it’s time, yet again, to batten down the hatches. At the same time, it’s just as easy to understand why we can’t afford to ignore the warnings. And why it’s long past due for employers and employees alike to change...

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Why Quiet Quitting is especially worrisome in tech

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LET’S DEFINE IT Quiet quitting is loosely defined as a state where workers continue to do their job and meet established expectations, but instead of going above and beyond by working evenings and weekends to get ahead, they’re instead sticking only what’s in their job description, and clocking out at 5 p.m. to spend more time with their families. While there’s ample debate over exactly what quiet quitting is, and why it’s happening, there’s growing consensus that it’s a response to decades of an advance-at-all-costs business culture that has allowed companies to squeeze endless,...

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9 Reasons to Choose Custom Software

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EFFICIENCY It’s pretty common for businesses to end up with a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf solutions, but this isn’t usually the most efficient way to get stuff done. In many cases, using multiple solutions in this way can result in everything from duplication of work to poor integration. This is because multiple pieces of software are often not designed to work together effectively, and duplication of work often means that issues fall between the cracks. As a result, you end up needing people just to check for data errors and redundancy. This level of efficiency clearly isn’t...

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Could Your Organization Benefit From Utilizing Managed IT Services?

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AN OVERVIEW Companies offering managed IT services are often referred to as managed service providers, or MSPs. They maintain a staff of highly skilled and experienced technology specialists that is shared by their clients, thereby eliminating or reducing the need for their clients to seek out and hire their own personnel during the worsening shortage. The level of services provided by the MSP can vary. For example, a client may have a limited on-site IT support staff to provide desktop and local network support and may contract with the MSP to manage the data center, backups, etc. Alternatively,...

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