Dilbert's truth about Consultancy

Sectoren in Stress

Volgens een onderzoeksrapport van ABN Amro bank (NewBank)naar de gevolgen van de kredietcrisis voor sectoren in Nederland dat uitkwam eind februari 2009 komt de IT-sector er beter vanaf dan andere sectoren. DE IT zal de gevolgen niet ontkomen maar de groei zal rond de nul-factor liggen.

Volgens het gesprek wat ik vanochtend had met Jeroen Jong, accountmanager ABN Amro (New Bank) omtrent het rapport wat hij overhandigde lopen de meningen over hoe IT-dienstverlening zich tijdens een recessie zal ontwikkelen uiteen. In het verleden was IT vaak 'recessieproof'. Maar dat was wel in een tijd dat de informatietechnologie in opkomst was en investeringen in IT als strategisch werden gekenmerkt. (volgens mij hebben IT-bedrijven nog nooit een echte tijd van financiele-/kredietcrisis meegemaakt)

De zakelijke IT-dienstverleningssector lijkt relatief gezien minder gevoelig voor de huidige economische neergang, stelt het rapport. Natuurlijk vind er vraaguitval plaats, vooral vanuit de financiele sector, één van de grotere opdrachtgevers, die het hardst geraakt wordt door de huidige kredietcrisis. Maar IT-diensten gelden door hun noodzaak en onderscheidend vermogen, over het algemeen toch niet als eerste aangewezen besparingspost voor bedrijven. Wel is te zien dat grotere projecten worden uit- of afgesteld. Bedrijven die met onderhoudscontracten werken zullen weer minder merken van de crisis. Daar waar IT (aantoonbaar) bijdraagt aan een efficiëntere bedrijfsvoering zullen ook in een tijd van recessie (of zelfs juist) ondernemingen in IT willen investeren. Een kleine krimp in hardware en lichte groei in software en dienstverlening. Diversificatie naar klantsegment is komend jaar cruciaal! Specialisatie richting financiële of industriële opdrachtgevers is een nadeel [killing dus] aangezien de omzet in deze segmenten sterk terugloopt. Voor het eerst zal de marge van IT-bedrijven wel onder druk komen te staan ivm de stijgende loonontwikkeling.

Zelf ben ik van mening dat bedrijven juist in een tijd van 'bezinning' hun processen onder de loep gaan nemen. Ondanks hectiek zullen ze de tijd nemen om processen te herstructureren en juist nu te investeren om ze op orde te brengen. Voor het eerst zal er echt duidelijk voordeel ontstaan voor de online dienstverleners die via het SAAS model (Software as a Service) werken. Met hun abonnementsvormen en maandelijkse betalingen zijn daar geen grote investeringen vooraf noodzakelijk wat in deze tijd direct zijn ROI terugverdiend.

Dergelijke berichtgevingen lopen volledig in lijn met mijn eigen bevindingen in de markt en de manier waarop bedrijven een beroep op ons blijven doen.

Document Management & OCR Integration with PeopleXS, hot or not?

Today I had lunch with Aniel Sriram, an old friend, who is back in business at MagSoft, a Document Management Solution Vendor. As usual with Aniel, we discussed interesting market concepts for new business and a possible tooling integration of Document Management into PeopleXS. Allthough I am not convinced where we can plug this into our business model. I would like to share the option with the public for ideas into PeopleXS. When this generates enough thought I can shoot it into the community for voting (something that I will do anyway).

I just read that MagSoft has OCR tooling as well which can be used to create searchable pdf documents. Currently we use Textkernel for CV parsing, OCR should go one step further. Any thoughts on whether this is adding value to our current parsing integration? Let me know!

Performance boost

Originally I started this blog to share why each day is a favorite day for me. Basically because everyday great things are happening in my life that make
doing business fun! Allthough I share a lot of different messages as well, here's an announcement that makes today another favorite day....

After many months and lot's of hard work, the PeopleXS IT Department is excited to announce that the entire technical infrastructure will be upgraded soon. How soon? The date will be announced within a couple of weeks!

• What's in the upgrade, you ask?


• New top-of-the-line, faster servers


• Upgraded server operating system


• Upgraded Enterprise Application software


• Upgraded Enterprise Database software


• Upgraded web servers


• Added more Application servers


• New and improved infrastructure monitoring


• Automatic Performance Correction - if something starts to get slow or shut down, in most cases the Application will know about it and heal itself.

So? How does this affect me while I work in PeopleXS day-to-day?
Read the whole announcement here.

Introductie nieuwe "vertical search" vacaturebank

Afgelopen februari werd er een nieuwe jobboard geintroduceerd "Zoekmijnbaan.nl". Het is eigenlijk geen jobboard, maar toch ook weer wel. Het is een vertical search engine.
Een crawler die het internet doorzoekt en van alle vacaturesites en bedrijfs sites de vacatures afhaalt en deze in eeneenvoudig overzicht plaats. Vooral interessant voor kandidaten maar voor bedrijven ook interessant om te weten. Wanneer traffic op deze site toe begint te nemen kan het zomaar zijn dat het plaatsen van de vacature op je eigen website voldoende is om m aan het grote publiek te presenteren.

Het werkt nog niet allemaal perfect of sommigen dingen kunnen beter, maar dat is altijd wanneer nieuwe zaken worden geintroduceerd. Er zijn leuke gadgets toegevoegd, of beter eigenlijk widgets, om de gebruiker van dienst te zijn. Bijvoorbeeld de LinkedIn widget. Handig!

Alumni program or Boomerang Recruiting

Crisis time, economic downturn is all we hear these days. Many companies are less occupied recruiting and more involved with mobility management in order to make sure the best people are staying at the right place in the organization. Are we still thinking about a future comeback of the market. Preventing real talent from leaving has become a bigger concern these days. Unfortunately not all companies can escape this tycoon and people made redundant seems to be unavoidable. Good employers arrange for outplacement possibilities and redundancy packages, however do they also think about the future? Of course not! That is, I expect that the majority of companies don’t. We are having problems now and so we act accordingly, now. Mostly without thinking about the future or at least not over a term of more than 1 or 2 years. After all there is a crisis going on and it is hectic! Jobs that have to be made redundant within a company in a free-fall economy are like lead in a sinking ship. Clean up now and patch up later.
However it would be wise (of course) to take time and set up a good re-hire or alumni program (a.k.a. ‘boomerang recruitment’). After rain there will be sunshine and the market will make a come back eventually. Whether it will be in 2009, 2010 or even later it does not matter. The past few years most companies have invested in recruiting campagnes and a ‘company brand’ in order to attract most current employees. When companies are now at the eve of massive layoffs or are already in the middle of it, they must consider the wasted money invested in these same employees. A good alumni program can ensure that these investments do not go to waste completely. It gives the opportunity to re-hire employees that have had to leave your company.

What is the purpose of an Alumni program?
This kind of program allows management to consciously think about and consider investments made in employees that will leave the company. The goal is to establish a relationship with these people or better to continue your relationship with these people in order to re-hire them when the time is right. This requires time and effort to set up with quality, however the returns are immediately visible when the market comes back.
The second goal is to keep a positive brand recognition as an employer. Even after it is forced into massive layoffs.
With today’s technology it is easier to set up a kind of program and achieve an ROI. Or even better without the current technology, Social Media, you should not even try. Even you would really like to take this ahead you can set up a website specifically for your company’s alumni and present a full program. This may include:

• the latest developments of the company


• the status of the recruitment and hiring policy


• events at which ex-employees could be involved


• industrial developments


• innovations in specific products, industry or business processes, provided this can be release on this format


• benchmarking and best practices


• portals with opportunities for updating work experience and education on a personal profile as well as a vacancy overview when you start hiring again.

Other benefits
Many employees remain within the same industry or within the same corporate chain. By maintaining good contacts, these people serve as ambassadors or prospect anchors for your existing business. The creation of a strategic partnerships page within the alumni support program may even give additional benefits.

Key differentiators for success
A few key items of importance in the set up of an Alumni program are:

• to use technology and social media


• create a strong business case. It should be an initiative with a business approach (ROI) and not just an interpretation of an HR trend.


• regularly evaluate on the basis of statistics and key indicators


• ensure a full program and in depth content for your target group otherwise you are doomed to fail.

As you can tell a farewell does not have to be permanent. With good policies and a structured program it can actually bear fruit. PeopleXS can always give advice or help you develop a plan. If needed in collaboration with one of our communication partners.

(source: ERE)

PeopleXS Community Live!

The PeopleXS community for recruiters, hr professionals, administrators and application experts, consultants and all who are interested went live. Company blogs, news articles, ideas and idea voting, forums and labs will become available within this community.


Last week during my vacation the community went live. Another community yes, but one that is specifically geared towards PeopleXS. Our customers asked us or this function during our user events. They wanted a place to share ideas on the web and discuss topics within user groups.
Additionally we want to provide a place where transparancy on product management for PeopleXS will be leading. Customer's, the markets and user idea's should be posted here and listed for voting. The best ideas out there will filter to the top and be developed by us. Not a new concepts, but important for the future of PeopleXS. Ofcourse not only the top rated ideas will be developed. We will continue to deploy other customer requests as well and our own strategic product ideas.


Additionally we hope to provide a platform for users and usergroups that allow people to share info and ideas on functionality within the application. Or how challenges during projects were faced and solved, etc. Forums will be introduced later to support this kind of discussion on the web. Ofcourse I will inform you again through this blog and the official PeopleXS blog postings.