CompTIA Blog

In Illinois, legislation that would shut down many small internet businesses has been passed by both houses and sits on the governor's desk for signature. Dubbed the Amazon Tax, the new law would require any non-Illinois seller to collect Illinois sales tax if that seller acquires customers through a link on the Internet website of the Illinois business. This requirement applies even ‘though the out-of-state business has no other presence in the state. We refer to this emerging concept as “virtu ...

Earlier this month, CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux observed that there is a significant knowledge gap among legislators, their staff and administration officials about the composition of the IT industry, and how sizeable and important a role the IT solution provider plays in the larger tech ecosystem."If a company isn't making a tangible product, producing patents or IP, they aren't getting noticed by lawmakers and federal agencies," said Thibodeaux. "We at CompTIA have a duty to rais ...

The preliminary news on Microsoft’s next version of Windows could lead to several ripples in the IT channel, far beyond its effects on the company’s escalating battles with rivals Apple and Google. According to long-time Microsoft expert and ZDNet blogger Mary-Jo Foley, the software company is on track to release Windows 8 (though this name hasn’t been finalized) in mid-2012, with beta clients getting access to the OS earlier in the year. The big question seems to be how many versions there will ...

During the 11th annual Health Information Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Fla., this past week, I had the chance to discuss CompTIA’s plans to produce a certificate in Health IT later this year with a number of potential customers. I am more enthused than ever that CompTIA’s plans are well grounded in a good understanding of the market, and our credential will help IT professionals make the move into the exciting vertical market of healthcare IT with great success. ...

A look at the week of February 21 in public advocacy for the IT channel The Senate-approved version of the 1099 tax provision repeal bill clashes with a version of the repeal approved by House Ways and Means Committee regarding how the government can pay for the repeal.  This week, the Senate’s cyber bill was updated with language explicitly prohibiting the President from shutting down the Internet.  The White House’s 2012 budget looks to update its IT systems in order to save money in the long ...

There’s no doubt about it; whether it’s local, state or federal budgets, discretionary dollars are going to be in scarcer supply. Deep cuts are coming at all levels. But not all cuts are the same.A large part of the growth of the IT industry over the last 30 years has been a result of the wholesale buy-in and adoption of IT as a means to make government and municipal services more efficient and effective. Data processing, document management and networked systems now make room for cloud-based st ...

You don’t need to be an industry insider to know there is a tremendous amount of activity/interest in the Healthcare IT market. Companies across the broad spectrum of the IT industry are either actively involved in the HIT space or considering it as a practice option. Obviously, the benefits associated with the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) and HITECH (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) programs have spurred much of this interest ...

As national policymakers observed the protests in Egypt unfold, an interesting fact emerged.  Egypt’s President Mubarak ordered the utility companies and Internet Service Providers to restrict Internet traffic, ultimately shutting down access to the Internet.  Consequently, Egyptian citizens had no access to social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook or Google that were being used to organize and mobilize protesters.Interestingly enough, on February 15, Senators Lieberman and Carper intro ...

Unless the 1099 reporting requirement is repealed, beginning in 2012, any business that pays a single vendor $600 or more for goods or services during a year would be required to issue a Form 1099-MISC to that vendor, and this form also must be filed it with the IRS.  We have has worked consistently with other technology associations  to encourage Congress to repeal this onerous provision. On February 17, the Senate voted to repeal the new 1099 reporting requirement; S.223 passed by a vote of 87 ...

The Mobile World Conference set the eyes of the technology world on Barcelona this week, with companies from around the world gathered to show off their solutions for the rapidly growing mobile market. Everything from processors to software to devices was on display, and while laptops remain the bedrock of the mobile device landscape and smartphones continue their explosive growth, the real star of this year’s show was the hottest new device on the market: tablets.Ironically, the company that la ...

A look at the week of February 14 in public advocacy for the IT channelThis week, the House Ways and Means Committee will begin looking over the 1099 tax provision repeal bill passed in the Senate.  Republican plans for a cybersecurity bill may contrast with efforts in the Senate.  Federal IT contracts are expected to increase, despite budget cuts.House Ways and Means To Mark up 1099 Repeal—The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up a bill this week that would repeal the 1099 tax provision ...

Are there any employers who would dare claim professional development of their staff is not important? Our recent research study, Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification, confirms that is not likely. In fact, professional development is moderately to extremely important to the great majority of organizations (93%).However, as we all have witnessed, varying levels of employer support for staff development exists between organizations, dependent on factors such as company size, resou ...

Darrell Issa (CA-49), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report this week detailing the committee’s findings on regulations that impede job creation.  This purpose of this report was to identify regulations that hinder job growth, with a particular focus on the concerns of small businesses. Issa’s committee has significant power to influence changes in federal government regulations and Executive Branch transparency.  Upon taking office last month, Chairman Iss ...

How often do we resist change – dig in our heels to avoid it – only to find out that a change has brought such positive results that we wonder why we didn’t do it sooner? For VARs, MSPs, and integrators there are amazing opportunities being created by advances in our technology as well as changes in why and how customers are buying today. But these new opportunities require some changes to your business model and strategy. “Even if you’re on the right track, if you’re sitting still the train wil ...

I was witness this week to an event becoming more frequent across the U.S.: the charter school lottery. CompTIA is a big supporter of charitable efforts in the Chicago area around education and workforce development, but one group in particular has gotten our full attention. The Chicago Tech Academy is now in its second year of operation and just this week held its third student lottery.Soon-to-be freshmen rejoice at winning the ChiTech lottery.The kids who attend ChiTech (as the students have n ...