It seemed more like it was the Partner Correct Conference, as it had all the large players in operating platforms and infrastructure – including Google, HP, IBM and Microsoft all having their say, but apart from Amazon, Apple, Oracle and any one from the Open Source side of things, of course.  The latter seem to be in the “out group” or their own world (a cloud?) away from this set of players - so where’s the IT conference or exhibition that includes everyone in the industry nowadays?

Nevertheless, the grouping at this event did give me a good insight into how most of “the old” and/or big proprietary players position their local resellers for life with new and big corporates, and it’s the best event I’ve found yet for walking (or sitting) around and getting an overall view on what’s new infrastructure-wise, as well as ways of comparing and proselytising one’s position if one is a reseller in the marketplace for IT (and now digital telecoms).

The Scene From The Seminars

There was still an element of these big players being cats circling one another from what I gleaned from the seminars with key reps (and quiet words with a few afterwards).  Judge for yourself from this short summary of sound bytes from the ones I attended:

• Cloud computing is a business model, not an IT one, as nearly everyone espoused.
• Google originates from the cloud – yet I did challenge  its partners’ positioning on its service offerings, as I had found from independent consulting work earlier this year that these are not clear – and hard to know how to find and compare one partner. Even Googling them does not help with knowing who’s best!  
• IBM sells business services now, not IT – however it is looking beyond the cloud and sees Smart Cities as being what’s on its horizon, and so living in a world where energy, telecoms and IT are sold and supported as one small box that sits in a corner somewhere in the house, as well as everything being auto-responsive in turning power up and down as maybe asking or telling you what to do in various operating scenarios.  Somehow I kept thinking of that movie “Transformers” throughout the presentation by Simon Baker (but “Space Odyssey – 2001“ now, as I write this). Still, it was good not to have anything more said on the cloud by the time I attended that one!
• Microsoft thinks its in the cloud – but all other vendors think that it has no idea, other than Hotmail, about what the cloud is. That said, buying Skype may have changed that…
• the Chrome netbook starts up in six seconds and all its apps are resident in the cloud (sorry, web?). This advice on a device came from the presentation by the President and CEO of CompTIA, who had brought every one of over a dozen different tablet and mobile devices with him and is not linked in with anyone in saying this…. 

In summary, the future’s not bright, its cloudy. Indeed, so the Google Partner rep advised, only they talked about the cloud three years ago – and now everyone wants (to offer) one. Really it was only IBM that seemed to have anything different and farsighted to talk about than the others – but then they are about business services now, right, and not just infrastructure!

The Scene from the Sidelines

Besides the big players, the outsider in this in-group was an organisation called CompTIA which positions itself as supporting no one vendor in particular, but being there for the IT professional in general. 

CompTIA is an international not-for-profit organisation that is a mix of an independent training company and vendor-independent technical certification authority that IT professionals can use for working with principles and concepts of any infrastructure. They also offer networking events for bringing IT professionals together who work in supporting  IT infrastructure.  

From my brief look into their offerings, ComTIA’s certifications do appear to be neutral as far as software is concerned – and are in things like project management, networking, etc – however, perhaps naively since they are new to operating here in the UK and Europe, their certifications are geared more to working in an American corporate world as they ignore best practice defined by organisations like the OGC such as PRINCE2, ITIL, etc. When I attended their drinks later I got a chance to query this in talking direct with their President and CEO, Todd Thibodeaux. Todd advised that their certification aligns more with PMI. So why not just offer PMI certification, I thought?  Oh, yeah, that’s because they are vendor-independent….

The thing is, I did happen to meet a fellow independent contractor there from the IT backup world who had used their services and sat through Todd’s presentation with me. Even Todd’s lead-in to the presentation clearly showed that the UK was new to him from not having brought an adapter for UK power supplies, and so being faced with power from over half of his devices running down until he could find one – as he promptly demonstrated by using this dilemma as an excuse to pull each one of his dozen devices out to show us all how much of a gadget junkie he is.   

The CompTIA courses are not totally new though, as my insider told me that he had found CompTIA’s training and certifications to be very expensive for what you can leverage from them – which is rather strange for an organisation that touts itself as being not-for-profit. So maybe a local reality check is in order for CompTIA before claiming to be open to one and all IT professionals?

Still, I appreciated being able to attend CompTIA networking drinks at the end of the conference and how their President and CEO said he would be happy to get someone to host an event for us to attend and form our own opinions of them in supporting the IT professional.  Maybe we in the OPTN can educate them at a networking event, as much them us, about what UK and European IT professionals really need to help support us in doing IT work here, as well as advise them on where they can buy a power supply for adapting U.S. IT networking and sales people’s devices for working here in the UK and Europe….

Following publication of the Office of Tax Simplification’s review of small business tax, the government has decided to retain IR35 as abolition would apparently put substantial tax revenues at risk. The government promises improvements in the way IR35 is administered.

These proposed improvements will apparently include guidance on those types of cases HMRC view as outside the scope of IR35. This will make an interesting read. In my opinion it’s what the law says that counts, and with the greatest respect, not HMRC whereby it often appears that no two status inspectors can agree on which factors to ignore. How many times have contractors had to overcome HMRC employment status perceptions and had to prove a negative when confronted by an HMRC IR35 Enquiry?

IR35 is now 11 years old and such a thorny subject even the OTS can’t decide what to do with this issue – more sticking plaster is surely not the remedy to cover spotty legislation.

How about HMRC gaining a basic understanding of work breakdown structures, concepts such as project management of labour and materials with Gantt terminal time lines and delivery of work to budget and so forth. When exploring genuine arrangements between client and contractor, everyone would gain a greater appreciation of contextual factors and apply the key status tests/principles of mutuality of obligation, control, personal service, financial risk, etc, etc.

I would suggest HMRC publishing the obvious guidance would be too simplistic and futile – a bit like HMRC status officers hearing hourly rate and assuming employment status without considering the genuine arrangements?

Chris Leslie
Director, Qubic Associates Ltd
(DD) 0191 493 4940 (e) cleslie@qubictax.com

1. What’s the most effective way to control staff use of social media at work?
2. How can we best manage corporate use of mobile devices?
3. I’ve heard about the recent implementation of £500,000 fines for leaking personal data. How can our organisation most effectively cover the risk?
4. What’s the best way to prevent corporate data loss?
5. Our organisation has a huge number of security policies. How can we rationalise and reduce this volume to something more manageable?
6. How can we be sure our security policies are working?
7. What’s the best way get the security message across to our staff?
8. How can we put a value on our business information?
9. How can our business keep up with constantly changing internet security threats?
10. How can we ensure the quality of our information security risk decisions?

Please contact Mike for answers to these questions, and more about information security, by email to mbarwise@intinfosec.com or by phone to 0845 463 1624

A talk on information and IT security is also being planned through OPTN London for February 2011. This is where you can meet Mike and find out more about information security as well as meet other members of OPTN London in person. Please register your interest for this event now by email to register@7c-alliance.com or by phone to 7C Alliance Events team on 0844 844 2470.

For finding details about other OPTN events in London, or for networking online and in person with OPTN members in London, please join the OPTN London UK on LinkedIn.

About the Open Practice Technology Network (OPTN)

The Open Practice Technology Network is the first business network created by the 7C Alliance and is for anyone who is generally interested or involved with managing information online for business purposes as well as for those interested or involved with managing, supporting and using information and telecommunications technology (ICT). The group is open to anyone joining who is not restrained in discussions about ICT for trade reasons (i.e. it is for those who are able to openly discuss effectiveness and efficiency of a particular vendor’s technology for doing business)

Why are we doing this?
The next level is to look at ways to ensure consistency within IT practices so that it is easier for 7C Alliance members to market themselves for work in them. This can otherwise take considerable time for an individual contractor to keep up-to-date with or work out when operating independently in an industry which is constantly evolving – and especially when there is not much opportunity to interact with colleagues and clients outside of the immediate contract that a contractor is working on.

The 7C Alliance are looking to overcome this challenge in the IT contractor marketplace by better understanding the practice(s) that an IT contractor’s services relate to, as well as the supply chain for them at large, by having various 7C Alliance members take responsibility as leaders in different practice areas. These leaders will act as a single point of contact (SPOC) for a practice and help to clarify any misunderstanding about what a practice involves as well as analyse how a particular practice can be developed and improved. The latter can include facilitating engagement of relevant 7C Alliance members where it is determined necessary to mitigate a risk or resolve an issue arising from a lack of clarity or support for a particular practice for a particular business.

What will be the focus?
The lead will be in areas where there are already numbers of 7C Alliance members operating and in practice areas where there is known interest and support for such practices from businesses interested in procuring such contractors’ services for helping them manage and support IT effectively end-to-end.

How will it work?
The practice leaders will review and analyse interest in response to queries about their designated practice area. They will help with determining what works best for the practice to improve for not only the benefit of 7C Alliance members operating in that area but also for businesses who need to understand what people operating in these practices can do for meeting their needs.

How can you engage with the 7C Alliance Practice Leads?

1. A generic email address will be provided for a practice.
2. Members and businesses wanting to participate in discussions or events about a practice will engage with the 7C Alliance through that email address.
3. The practice lead will determine engagement and support required by analysing emails received.
4. The practice lead will determine what discussions, events and other forms of communication are best for making sure that the supply chain for services in an area are understood and managed effectively for members of the 7C Alliance operating in that area – but also for helping businesses who need support in that practice too.
5. FAQ for IT contractors, as well as industry support for their services, will be managed through social media that is being built by the 7C Alliance and will be available in the near future.

What are the next steps?
As a first start we are looking to have three practice areas where members who have proven themselves will act as coordinators in the following areas:

We are also going to be providing a mix of business, life, recruitment coaching services to assist those who are not sure which direction they are going in.

Please join the UK and European Open Practice Technology Network in the first instance for discussing this initiative.

The 7C Alliance is also looking for sponsors of practices – however as the intention is for focus on the practice and not products for managing the practice, sponsors cannot be suppliers of practice management tools.

See the posting by Philip Fanthom from Jenrick IT in the 7C Alliance – Open Practice Technology Network for details and registration of interest.

Background
Mark Compton, from Fisher King Associates, was engaged as an Alliance Partner by the 7C Alliance last year to provide advice and assistance to those 7C Alliance members who are independent contractors, aka freelancers, on good recruitment practice both by and in using recruitment agencies. This draws on his background of 20+ years in IT and technical recruitment as well as reputation for high integrity and value as a recruiter.

Mark’s and other Alliance Partners’ engagement, and introduction of Trusted Recruitment Agencies to members of the 7C Alliance’s Open Practice Technology Network, are all part of an “open practice” approach that the 7C Alliance initiated in 2009 to enable greater awareness and understanding of how the recruitment marketplace operates from the contractor’s perspective. This includes professional support and advice for the wider local UK community of independent IT and Telecom (ICT) contractors on how to engage and best manage the supply chain for their services end-to-end, using the 7C Alliance concept of there being “7 C’s to consider for survival and success on contract“.

As part of this initiative, Mark and the 7C Alliance started doing live events and trialed two presentations in West London last year that are now to be presented again on March 18th, 2010, but this time in Central London.

Overview of CV WorkShop
This will be a panel-based workshop on CV Writing and Marketing Tips. It will include techniques for both writing your CV for agencies to pick up on in the current market but also for following up and getting agencies to read and submit it.

Mark will give us his advice on what agencies expect and how they use your CV, if it is accepted.

Matt Miller, Director and Founder of the 7C Alliance, will share 7C Alliance Members’ understanding based on experience gained from his coaching as well as 7C Alliance Limited’s independent research into the UK contract recruitment market over 5 years. This reprises the highly successful workshop that we trialed in September last year as shown on 7C Alliance’s blog at the following link: http://bit.ly/8RDo5v

This workshop will be from 2.30 to 4 pm.

Seminar: How Agencies Work
This seminar will reprise the presentation that Mark gave to members of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) group at a meetup at the London Chamber of Commerce in July last year.

This seminar will be from 4.30 – 5.30pm and include advising how contractors can leverage understanding of how agencies work in sourcing and applying for contract work through them.

Mark will also give advance notice at that workshop of what contracting management structures contractors are best to use in line with new legislation on the Agency Worker Directive (AWD), aka Temporary Worker’s Directive, which is now due to be introduced following the UK Elections and most likely in 2011.

Registration and Fees
Unlike the trials of this workshop and seminar last year, there will be a fee for each of £55 to members of the general public – or £100 to attend both.

A discounted offer of £45 each per seminar / workshop is available for members of the OPTN group or LITCAM list.

Please note that spaces ARE limited on both of these – and we will hold more if they prove as popular as they were last year.

Other Workshops
On the same day there will also be two workshops on Interview Techniques held by Lindsay Maclean from ielevate.

These will be held earlier in the day and be 1 hour each, with one at 11am (Workshop A) and the other at 12.30pm (Workshop B). They are the same workshop but just geared to allow for the fact that some contractors may want to attend in their lunch-hour – and as much get a few tips on what they can do to improve their presentation as much as their interview techniques from Lindsay in the 12.30pm time-slot.

A separate blog post on this will feature shortly.

Well, the 7C Alliance Contractor Support Analyst team asked these very questions while doing the first trial of the new contractor health check call initiative.

The intention of these calls is to determine:

a)    What 7C Alliance can do to help the group, as a whole, to increase its opportunity

b)    What can be done to help an individual member specifically with increasing their opportunity, according to the needs and goals that they advise on becoming a member (which is based on the 7 C’s)

c)    What the individual member can do to help themselves

For the first and only time, we have decided to publicise the responses we have received in the 7C Alliance discussion group and are interested in feedback from other members on this initiative as well as the Open Practice Technology Network at large.

If you are interested in reading the results of the first round of Contractor Health Check Calls, please join the 7C Alliance LinkedIn discussion group by clicking on the link to the left or by cutting and pasting the following into your Web browser: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1542397

Once you have joined the group, you will be able to read and participate in the discussion by following this link: http://bit.ly/70U9oh. We look forward to your contribution to the ongoing discussion!

Written by Stuart Brown, an Associate Member of the 7C Alliance.

We will be meeting up at The Old Fox Theatre Bar, 54 – 56 Hurst Street from 6.30 pm onwards. Read on for a few more details about some of those confirmed as attending as well as for more details about The Old Fox and registration of interest to attend.

Special Interest Guests
Jane Fisher, who runs Organise Limited – a Mobile Phone Application consulting business – will be attending along with co-founder and Technical Director, Mark Slight.

Jane knows a lot about both IT and Telecom contracting in The Midlands area from having been both a business analyst and project manager there for many years. She recently wrote a poignant and heart-felt blog about the impending closure of Ericsson, a once very profitable Telecommunications business based in Coventry, and is interested to meet others to talk about how we might be able to revitalise businesses that were once iconic like GEC, or otherwise bring more business to The Midlands area.

Mark has worked for a number of telecoms companies since leaving university. He was involved in the company that put the first Smartphone OS on a mobile phone back in 1997. He has written software for all of the Smartphone platforms and has developed for other handheld devices as well. He has led software teams designing VOIP, IM and MMS and worked as a consultant. He is a hands-on mobile software expert that likes to embrace new technologies.

Organise Limited is a new venture that Jane and Mark have started up this year in response to interest in what can be done using the new generation of smart phones – and is a sign of the initiative being taken by a new generation of entrepreneurs emerging in response to the downturn in the traditional market for contract work.

7C Alliance Members Attending
The following people will be attending from the 7C Alliance and 7C Alliance Limited:

Stuart Brown, the author of the very well-received 7C Alliance blog on “How to stay positive while looking for a job” and an Associate Member of the 7C Alliance. Stuart provides services to the 7C Alliance on a voluntary basis for facilitating sharing of knowledge about Social Media, including raising awareness of its value, as well as currently being on a part-time contract to 7C Alliance Limited where he is working as a CRM Business Analyst reviewing and refining the Contractor Support Analysis and Contractor Resource Administration functions.

Matt Miller , Founder of the 7C Alliance – and Managing Director of 7C Alliance Limited, the business responsible for coaching and marketing top quality IT contractors, as well as facilitating or assuring other support services available to them. Matt himself is a contract Business Systems Consultant and Project Manager with a focus on effective delivery and support of Enterprise Applications to support Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) business processes. He also has product-specific knowledge of Oracle Server technologies and Oracle E-business Applications – and so will be attending the Oracle User Group Conference in Birmingham from 30 November through to 2 December.

Registration of Interest to Attend
Please email contact@7c-alliance.com if interested and able to make it along, along with name, contact details and interest in Oracle, IT and Telecoms contract work.

More About The Old Fox
Click on the following link for more details about the pub: The Old Fox.

Further Discussion on IT and Telecoms Contracting in The Midlands
For further discussion on the status of IT and Telecoms Contracting in The Midlands, as well as meet and chat with Jane and other 7C Alliance members online, please join the 7C Alliance’s newly rebranded Open Practice Technology Network , which is operated and managed online using a LinkedIn discussion group

Diana started well with her intro that engaged the group on how helpful it is to know what makes us notable and known when networking. The example of David Beckham – and his ability to “bend it” on the playing field – helped identify those interested in football by contrast with those who know him better for being able to “strut it” on the red carpet with Posh Spice or on the catwalk. So, when networking, we should also be aware of what others are likely to know and be interested in, as well as what makes us good or interesting to talk to.

Diana also gave a few tips to help get the group started in networking on the Vinopolis wine tour that followed the talk.

These tips were as follows:

1. Have a Goal

2. Prepare a 30 second advert

3. Ask Open Questions

Sound simple? Maybe, but how many times have you been to a networking event and not known where to start, who to talk to or what to say? If so, these tips are for you – and here’s a little more on each to help you do what you have to do

Have a Goal

This amounts to:

Prepare a 30 second advert

In IT and other areas of technology, it can be challenging enough to help explain what you do – let alone make it interesting in explaining your edge in it.

To help you, you need to perhaps discuss it with others to get the idea – such as using a great discussion similar to one recently on LinkedIn about how to explain “Enterprise Architecture”, simply, to The Board in less than 160 characters. You may have heard of such things referred to before as an “elevator pitch”

Once you have a simple catchy definition of the area you work in – and one you think that the listener may need to know and be interested in – then you need to practice it.

This combination will:

Ask Open Questions

This makes the person you are talking to “open up” – and allows you to find out more about them and their relevance to you, as well as make the conversation flow and them more interested in you

Open questions start with: Who, What, Why

So what’s the value of these tips?

Diana referred to recent blogs on other IT industry professional sites where support has recently been given for IT contractors to be able to “talk the walk”. This is never truer than when having to meet someone in a social setting, and especially when you only have a short space of time in which to introduce yourself and get them interested in what you do. So Diana’s tips help with that.

But How Do I Get To Know Who I Need To Meet?

It also helps to have some support from the hosts of the event in providing some means to help you know who you need to know.

7C Alliance Limited has developed a structured approach to networking, using a mix of its guest profile list and networking coordinators, that helps guests identify who is relevant to them based around common skills and knowledge elements in technology, or other areas of known interest. This helps make it easier to meet and get to know who you need to know readily.

What’s more, where they are happy to share them, the guest profile list even includes a few things about what the person likes to do socially as a way of having something more than just “shop talk” to talk about with them…

The rest, beyond identifying who you need to get to know, is certainly helped by the tips that Diana shared.

Further Events on Networking

Diana, Stuart and Matt look forward to hearing from people interested in coming along to a workshop in the New Year where you can learn a few more tips from Diana and practice the art with others in ways that will help you to achieve what you need and want to do. Such as using it to get yourself a new contract job – but also to have some fun in doing that too (like we did in the course of the Wine Tour last Thursday).

Thank you once again to all those who came along – and especially those who came along from St Paul’s Speakers, a Division of Toastmaster’s International, to support Diana.

Written on behalf of the London IT Contractor Alliance Meetup (LITCAM) Group and the 7C Alliance by Matt Miller, Director, 7C Alliance Limited

National Freelancer's Day

Did you know that there was a day set aside for us? It has been initiated by the Professional Contractor’s Group and is intended to get recognition of the contribution that freelancers make to the economy. Check out more details on the National Freelancer’s Day web-site