Things Are Always Changing...

This month REMEDI begins its 18th year in business! Thanks to those who have contributed to REMEDI's success, and thanks for your consideration in tomorrow's business and data integration initiatives, be they EDI, EAI, ETL, DI, BW, or BI in nature.

It's funny to look back at events that happened in the year we formed REMEDI. The White House launched its first web page, initial ecommerce sites were established, the price of regular gasoline/gallon was $1.16, the cost of a first-class stamp was $0.29, Forrest Gump was the top grossing movie of the year, ER and Friends premiered on NBC, and of course the O.J. high speed chase.

In many respects it seems just yesterday we launched REMEDI. In other respects it has been a long haul. The EDI, middleware, and now integration industry has endured a lot of change...the emergence of the Internet, Y2K, XML (replacing EDI :-) ), Dotcom (and bomb), SOX, EDIINT, HIPAA, purchasing portals, etc. REMEDI and a large majority of our clients have endured these changes, not to mention three economic downturns of major significance.

Now, as you may have seen through integration software acquisition announcements, we prepare for a time of consolidation across the EDI, B2Bi, EAI, comms/MFT, and business intelligence software space.

As always, it will be an interesting ride.

Are We Prepared For The Return To Growth?

Just weeks ago I wrote in the June edition of THINKRONIZATION that we were seeing / hearing a lot about levels of preparedness in IT to support a return to growth. For those that expect company growth to return, some are prepared for it, others are planning for it, and a few are still operating as if they are in survival mode.

Parlayed from its SHARE article outlining the importance of business integration / collaboration in future success of our organizations', another InformationWeek article came out in an edition that followed which continued the preparedness theme. Why IT Must Get Back Into Growth Mode also drew many of its conclusions from the 2010 Global CIO Survey. The survey points out a number of things about organizations that expect to grow in 2010, and for those that do, what types of budgets and projects are queued up to help drive growth.

As IT leaders are increasingly expected to play a role in innovation and product development are they provided the budget to do so? Per the survey, half of IT leaders saw their budgets rising this year, and two-thirds forecast increasing revenues. I'd expect these two numbers to move more in sync with one another given that improved collaboration implementations are planned by 40% of those surveyed and lead all other major implementation initiatives for the year. Making business processes more efficient leads the innovation plans of 48% of respondents, with introduction of new IT led products and services for customers the second most favored innovation category at 36%.

Data, the sharing of it, and how it is organized to make use of products and services more valuable to the user, is of great importance to customer and hence our organizations. IT leaders that align business / data integration people, processes, and technology to deliver new products / services will aid their organizations in driving growth. This (use of data to influence new products and drive growth) is cited in the survey as the single biggest opportunity for CIOs this year.

Are you in an organization that charges IT with driving and supporting growth through product innovation, integration, collaboration? If yes, good. Your organization is pretty insightful.

Are you prepared with people, process, technology, and the all important budget, to support growth? If no, it's time to get going.

In my view these two articles, and associated survey, provide integration professionals the information required to make sure growth support requirements are met with the scaled resources to do so.

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THINKRONIZATION...Article Ideas?

For those not familiar with our semi-monthly e-newsletter, THINKRONIZATION, it is the thinking person's newsletter for business and data integration professionals who are focused on the synchronization of systems, business, and data.

The newsletter is something we published years ago as the "REMEDI rEsource", mothballed for a while, dusted off in August 2009 and has been since known as THINKRONIZATION.

As in the past the content contains thought leadership pieces focused on news, research, trends, services, and placement information, within the IT disciplines of Business-to-Business Integration (B2Bi), Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Data Integration (DI), and Business Intelligence (BI).

Now with 5 of the most recent editions down, we could use your input on themes to focus on in future editions.

Check out past editions, and subscribe for future ones.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

U CONNECT 2010...

at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort
San Antonio, Texas
June 7-10, 2010

For those attending the U Connect 2010 conference in San Antonio, the event is just around the corner. While not exhibiting this year, we are excited to be attending the conference. Our goal in attending is to learn more in order to operate in an advisory capacity for our clients and to help them integrate more effectively up and down the supply chain.

Give us a shout if you happen to be attending, we would enjoy meeting with you at the conference.

The EDI and Integration Impact of The Affordable Care Act.

The health care reform law has business and data integration implications that, while not completely understood at this point, will involve intense integration requirements. Some integration requirements will unfold over time due to the rule making authority that exists in the law which empowers certain DHHS and other officials to mandate health care processes, procedures, and standards in the name of efficiency. Other integration requirements are explicit in the law and include a significant revamp to HIPAA transaction standards, the creation of new document standards, the creation of a unique health plan identification number, electronic claim payment/remittance, and utilization of electronic medical records, to name just a few.

Regardless of your favor or distain for this law, it is likely it will impact your organization in some way. More on how the law might specifically impact Integration professionals in blogs to come.

C2H FAQ – Exploring Contract To Hire

A Contract To Hire (C2H) arrangement is an excellent tool in a technical hiring manager’s toolbox. These scenarios also benefit candidates during a recovery cycle, as well as during good times. But, just like any other tool, some care and diligence is required to ensure a good outcome. Let’s start by understanding what Contract To Hire is, and what it isn’t.

Contract to Hire is a specific means to a specific end. It is the acquisition of an eventual full time employee for an approved full time seat by a designated date. This shouldn’t be confused with a “Right To Hire” scenario, whereby an employer utilizes the services of a consultant for project work and wishes to reserve the “right” to decide later if a full time employee is needed in that role. “Right To Hire” options can benefit employers and consultants when proper expectations are set, but for now we will concentrate on Contract To Hire.

C2H – Why it works and why it doesn’t.

Contract To Hire relationships work well by allowing both candidate and employer to benefit from a trial period prior to the consummation of a full time hire. The contract evaluation period often calms uneasiness and allows for faster initial on-boarding, thus preventing important company initiatives from falling behind while the company waits to find the “perfect” candidate.

When a Contract To Hire arrangement breaks down it is usually due to a lack of leg work to ensure that expectations are set, checked, and properly managed on each side. Open Communication most always prevents or solves any issues. However, both sides need to be willing to ask the right (tough) questions, and evaluate what the other party hopes to achieve from the arrangement. Most often it’s the unanswered question that leads to failure. That being said, most true Contract To Hire arrangements will result in success for everyone.

Here are just Four basic considerations to think about in a Contract To Hire scenario.

Is the candidate a fit for the role based on skills, experience, and career goals? A person’s skill set, background AND career goals must be in alignment with the role for the best outcome. This alignment ensures that the candidate is placed into a satisfying and mutually beneficial role, instead of just accepting the offer of income until something better comes along.

Why does the company prefer A Contract To Hire arrangement? If the company has a history of hiring on a Contract To Hire basis, then things generally work out well. If the employer has never hired in this fashion, clear expectations of performance and goals should be set and reviewed regularly.

Are there limitations or additional expectations to be aware of until hired full time? Be sure to ask questions about things like system access, overtime, and travel. Asking these questions will help you avoid overlooking a critical requirement for success.

Is it safe to leave an existing job for a Contract To Hire position? Let’s assume that all your questions are answered and the company is stable, with a history of successfully placed Contract To Hire employees. Let’s also assume that you’ve done your legwork and the prospective employer has provided a solid job description, a date that you can expect to convert from contract to full time status, and a plausible salary range. With the knowledge of those details not in question, the opportunity can be a good move as long as the job is in alignment with your goals and a match for your skills. In a stable company, a well planned and executed Contract To Hire scenario poses no more risk to a solid performer than a permanent hire.

Charley Hughes has successfully placed hundreds of job-seekers into career-advancing positions during his eleven years as an Information Technology recruiter, and now works exclusively with EDI, EAI, and eCommerce professionals across the United States. Charley makes his home in Ohio with his wife of 22 years and their two teenage sons.

What About Electronic Payments?

In Part 1 and 2 of "2010 Holds Opportunity in Supplier Enablement" I wrote about the opportunity to increase efficiency and reduce cost in supplier enablement given the low utilization rate of electronic requisition-to-order throughout the North American supply chain. The Aberdeen research source for those pieces not only dealt with the order cycle but paper vs. electronic payment processes.

In a former life I was a Banking Financial EDI and ACH product manager and was curious about why such a small percentage of companies that were integrated with suppliers electronically, did not do electronic payments as well. After 15 years of Integration consulting for hundreds of clients, I wonder that same thing. Are they not prevalent due to the float game, cash flow control, internal cost of capital, Check 21, awareness of the options in Financial EDI?

Aberdeen research estimates that in North America it costs 35.5% less to make supplier payments electronically versus paper payment authorization, remittance, and check. Another big opportunity to save costs, but an approach not widely utilized for some reason.

According to NACHA electronic corporate trade payments are on the rise and paper ones are falling. Also, corporations are starting to look at the integration of the procurement and payment functions. But as I look at those we have served in the past, many have not chosen to pursue electronic payment as of yet, though they have infrastructure and connectivity for it.

Similar to the procure to pay analysis, let's apply some math to the situation. If an organization has 1000 suppliers with an average of 8 orders/mo, what are the economics behind an initiative to enable all these suppliers for electronic payment?

1000 suppliers x 8 orders X 12 months X $3.29 - electronic payment savings = $315,840.

The savings are big. I guess this needs to be compared with cost of capital and how many invoice payments your organization processes a month. However, these are savings ripe for the picking.

So, are you looking for 2010 efficiency opportunities this year? Again, supplier E-nablement is a place to start.

Aberdeen research source: http://www.aberdeen.com/c/report/sector_insights/5097-SI-supplier-enablement-enterprise.pdf

Contract Staffing - Where's It Headed?

Given the recent recession, clients requiring Integration assistance understand more than ever, the power of a contract (contingent/temp) workforce. The current U.S. contract workforce has grown to 2% of all employment, from a fraction of a percentage a decade or two ago. The contract workforce is estimated to grow to approximately 4% in next 5 to 6 years.

A paradigm shift is taking place in this recovery that is impacting the growth rate, causing this method of staffing to grow more rapidly than in the past. Contract workers have, and will continue to, become a larger part of total employment providing corporations:

• specialized as-needed expertise
• broad experience from varied client environments
• flexibility in staffing levels
• seasonal variation in staffing levels
• better visibility into labor costs
• increased access to screened/qualified candidates
• contract-2-hire on-boarding methodology

With little visibility into the future of economic, tax, and regulatory affairs, companies will charge forward with customer retention, product/service innovation, and new customer acquisition. However, they will do this with as flexible of a workforce as possible.