Lisa Fasold Posts

You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s one of the scariest elements of business. You know your business and do a great job at it, but how do you prep for what you don’t know? And, even scarier, can you prove in court that you do a great job and are prepped for the unknown? Mike Semel, president of Semel Consulting, addressed one of those big unknowns for managed services and managed print providers in presenting on “New HIPAA Changes and How They Affect Your MPS ...

With the national community college graduation rate dropping by 25 percent, businesses, government and schools are teaming up to form new education models to get students ready for a career. Primary is a focus on "STEM" (science, technology, engineering and math) education and preparing students for jobs in these fields. Experts have determined that they can't tackle the problem at solely the community college level, but all along the schooling pathway, from preschool to age 20. Making Jobs a C ...

How is mobility changing the business workflow at companies? During a meeting of CompTIA’s newest member community, the Mobility Community, at the association’s Annual Member Meeting, happening this week at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Seth Robinson, director of technology analysis and market research at CompTIA, discussed how Pepsi handed out iPhones to 4500 hourly employees that checked on soda machines as part of a pilot project.The Pepsi employees used their phones to check in at ...

To better learn, we need to rethink how we organize information and how we teach that information. Reuben Tozman, chief learning officer, edCetra Training, delved into how people will learn in the future during the CompTIA Colloquium conference this week in Chicago. Traditionally teaching has moved from one teacher to one student, to one teacher to many students. But with the Web, one student can have many teachers through videos, white papers, ebooks, blogs etc. The web allows learning to b ...

At one point in her long IT career, Nellie Scott's superiors didn't want to train her female staff because they thought women were more likely to leave the company, particularly as they approached motherhood. Scott, now a manager at Lenovo, gave a winning argument back, ending with, "What if you don't train them and they stay?" That line finally got her superiors on the ball with training her entire staff. How to get more women in IT and how women in the industry can use different resources t ...

At one point in her long IT career, Nellie Scott’s superiors didn’t want to train her female staff because they thought women were more likely to leave the company, particularly as they approached motherhood.  Scott, now a manager at Lenovo, gave a winning argument back, ending with, “What if you don’t train them and they stay?” That line finally got her superiors on the ball with training her entire staff.How to get more women in IT and how women in the industry can use different resources to s ...

Steve Potts, director accountable for Growth at Transmentum Ltd., based in Nottingham, U.K., assured me the Dutch have a sense of humor.  But he still doesn’t advise tech vendors to use jokes when trying to break into the Dutch market.“You see, we salespeople paint word pictures.  And while many Dutch business people speak excellent English, they just don’t have the same frame of reference,” Potts explained.I ran into Potts in the hallway after he served on a panel discussion during the “Busines ...

Maybe you’re looking at five years to grow your company organically to where you want it to be.  But five years is a long time in the IT industry.  Instead, you’re looking at mergers and acquisitions to get bigger quicker.During Breakaway today, presenters Samuel Attias, managing partner, Technology Capital Investors, and Rick Murphy, managing partner, Cogent Growth Partners, gave attendees an insider’s perspective on what really goes on behind the curtain when buyers are considering purchasing ...

You know you need to be in the mobility market or at least embrace it for your customers, but are you struggling with how to capitalize on the opportunity and challenges mobility presents?  A panel of mobility experts at CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting offered some answers for IT solutions providers struggling with that question.There’s no denying the growing trend of mobility.  Mobile device shipments eclipsed PC shipments for the first time 2011. Tablet shipments are expected to exceed 100 mil ...

From now until November 6th, CompTIA will provide special political updates, making note of interesting developments in the 2012 presidential race, as well as the all-important balance of power in the U.S. Congress.  Why does this matter?Decisions by the U.S. President and Congress have a direct effect on technology policies which in turn impact the everyday business of the IT channel.  To this end, CompTIA kicked off the political season with a bang at AMM, inviting renowned pollster, author an ...