A few weeks ago I attended the Financial Services in Technology Conference (FST) in Melbourne. The conference was held to bring individuals working in technology areas within the financial services domain together whilst promoting discussion around innovative and technology. One of the sessions I attended was a panel of technology innovation leaders who spoke about “what’s the next big thing” in technology. This year we have noticed a significant demand for going mobile. For businesses that specialise in financial services, this means a high demand for mobile banking. Customers want the option to access their information and make transactions anytime anywhere, so for the top four banks this means competing with one  other to create the most efficient and easiest mobile application for customers to use.

One of the questions that was asked at the conference was; how is each individual bank being innovative and what are they doing to stand apart from each other and the rest of the world?  To my surprise everyone on the panel suggested they weren’t thinking of new ideas or movements, but rather investing in improving their current systems and updating them to be the most efficient and easiest to use. Is this innovation? Is simple change and improvement how we define innovation in our current world or is it just the Australian mentality?

Innovation is defined as something newly introduced, such as a new method or device. The most innovative contributions we’ve had in the past few years have been movements towards green energy, the invention of devices like the iPhone, hybrid cars, galactic air crafts, and medical research advancements towards curing diseases like autism, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. All of these things are completely new ideas, not simple improvements on current systems or processes. What movements or devices has Australia contributed to the global economy?

We look to technology leaders and innovation experts within large scale corporations to push for funding and create teams that will come up with entirely new solutions. In my opinion it is concerning to hear individuals in leading positions suggest that being innovative means improving current applications and speeding up systems that are already in place. This is not innovation, this is process improvement which should already be happening as a way to improve business. We need innovative leaders to inspire teams whilst encouraging creativity.

Innovation is the key to future development in technology, medicine, and natural resources. How are we motivating people to be innovative and come up with ideas that will significantly change the world? How do we expect Australia to play a part in the global market? Are we seen as the little brother who simply follows trends? Will Australia ever be seen as a leader of innovation? What is Australia’s role as an innovator in the global economy?

Ambition recently hosted our first user group at our head office in Sydney.

We were joined by the Silverlight Designer and Developer Network who meet once every month to discuss all things applications and Silverlight. However, the focus of the group is not just on developers, it’s for designers who don’t traditionally have the community and support that developers have.

The user group was attended by 15 people who relaxed and talked over pizza and beer. The meeting focused on promoting the development of ideas and best practices for anyone who works with Silverlight.

Chris Anderson, the founder of the Sydney chapter of the Silverlight Designer and Developer Network, commented that Silverlight is interesting for both developers and designers. “Due in part to Silverlight’s excellent separation of design and development concerns, we have new problems to solve around finding the best ways to work together. The user group intends on bringing the two groups together to explore this further”.

Chris Anderson originally started the user group to enable both experienced and new Silverlight designers and developers to network and share their knowledge around Silverlight (and its associated technologies, such as Windows Phone 7, Light Switch, etc.).  They get together, listen to a couple of talks, and hopefully go home with some new contacts and knowledge they can put to use in their own work.

Are you in a user group and what benefits do you see?

Everyone has a story to tell about a Christmas party experience; to be the punch line of a bad experience can lead to more than just a red face however so read on for our Christmas Party Do’s and Don’ts.Do remember that although office parties are intended as social events to reward employees and raise morale, they remain strictly business events. 

- Do act as though your behavior is being observed every minute (because it probably is).

- Don’t pass up the invitation to an office party; not attending could hurt your reputation. And when you attend, do spend at least 30 minutes at the party for appearances. But don’t overstay your welcome by partying until the wee hours, unless of course that is your company’s expectation.

- Do conduct yourself professionally at all times. Don’t use the office party as an excuse to blow off steam. It’s still a company function, so proper etiquette and decorum matter.

- Do enjoy yourself at the party. Employers spend the big bucks to reward their employees, so be sure to enjoy what might be your holiday gift!

- Don’t pull the nightclub attire from your closet for the event, conservative party clothes are a good choice. So, do remember to skip anything too revealing or too flashy. Keep your reputation for good taste intact.

- Do keep your hands to yourself. Don’t flirt, and do avoid any other inappropriate behavior. The office party is not the time to end your career with the company by doing something inappropriate or illegal.

- Don’t spend all evening talking business. You’ll forever have the label as the office bore.

- Do keep all conversations positive and upbeat. Don’t spend the evening complaining, bragging, correcting, whining, or ridiculing. And do avoid controversial subjects (such as religion, politics, etc.) and off-color jokes.

- Don’t monopolize conversations — and, especially, don’t talk about yourself or your accomplishments all night. Do show interest in others. Do be gracious and thank coworkers and team members for all their help and hard work during the past year. And don’t even think about gossiping about others.

- Do take the time to network and schmooze with people at the party who can influence your career or who you may not see regularly, such as top management, people from other departments, and employees from other locations. A holiday party is a great event to begin building or strengthening business relationships, so do introduce yourself and build your network.

- Don’t assume everyone celebrates the same holiday, so don’t go overboard with the “Merry Christmas.”

- Do be sure you know exactly who is invited to the party. Spouses or significant others are not always on the guest list for office parties. And if guests are permitted, don’t bring an inappropriate person as your guest.

- Don’t forget to thank the person responsible for the planning and coordinating of the party. And do consider sending a thank-you note to top management for hosting the party.

- Do inquire about office policies on providing car or cab service for employees attending the holiday party. And do appoint a designated driver or do hire a cab yourself if the company is not willing to provide the rides home. 

- Don’t drink and drive.

 Enjoy the holiday season, recharge your batteries and break out those New Year resolutions for 2011.

Whilst attending the FST (Financial Services in Technology) event last Friday, I listened to Greg McAweeney, the GM of RaboDirect, speaking about using Social Media to enhance customers experience.  Rabobank Direct is a specialist online-only savings and investment bank and the only bank that publishes a blog on its website.  They feel this demonstrates their openness and transparency and I was surprised to learn they are not afraid to showcase the good and the bad on their site for all to see.  The brainwave idea is that we must relinquish control, as Greg says, we never had it anyway!  We must embrace the opportunity to show ourselves “warts and all” to redress some of the crowning issues that have recently dogged the banking industry and, on reflection are the same complaints that have, over the years, been leveraged against the recruitment sector.  The banking industry has taken a hammering post GFC with little trust and much anger from the general public, as with the recruitment industry key concerns predominately focus around openness, transparency and honesty.

With many unscrupulous and unethical agents and agencies around it is my experience that consultants with an honest, ethical and assiduous approach will always shine out from the pack.  In addition using social media is a fantastic way to create communities and become a “trusted advisor”, a specialist in your chosen field and with something of more value to give than your average “common or garden” variety recruiter.  It is a wonderful opportunity to create an open forum for feedback and ultimately lead to innovation as posts both positive and negative can be analysed and addressed.

Obviously you need to have a clear policy around your social media strategy and to ensure staff members are trained and contribute to the development of it. More and more companies are implementing social media guidelines for their staff which outline how they are expected to behave when representing the company, with social media becoming mainstream these guidelines around their use are essential.  There are many celebrated cases of staff who have uploaded damaging videos online which go viral and can cause huge reputational damage.

In a recent interview conducted by FST, Greg McAweeney, General Manager, RaboDirect Australia commented that it is important to ensure your organisation has a clear social media strategy. Rather than just jumping in because you feel you ‘need to be doing something’ which is probably the wrong approach.  A coherent strategy which outlines your objectives, the implementation plan, resourcing needs and reporting tools will put some structure around your social media activities.

Ambition Technology is keen to create a strong interactive presence on our website (blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook and a newsletter).  We feel it is important to be active in the social media space so we can provide relevant and interesting information for our clients and candidates alike and we can interact with them in channels they prefer to use.

Business and Social Media – Your Thoughts??

Whilst double dips and roller-coaster balance sheets belie their funfair parlour, Australia’s Technology Industry at least, appears ready to hop back on the merry-go-round of a candidate skill short market. We’ll explore whether this is myth or reality, and what we should be doing in either scenario.

In this edition of the Ambition Technology Market Trends report:

As usual we are always keen to hear from you, please leave your comments, questions or suggestions in the comment section below.

Or view the embedded version after the jump.

For the best viewing experience click ‘Fullscreen’ below to view the report in full screen.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch so the saying goes, but more and more recently we are seeing a number of job seekers prepared to work for free.

Whether they are experienced in a particular field and looking to switch careers or newly qualified job seekers looking for the first rung on the corporate ladder, the offer is the same: we will work for free in exchange for a chance to learn new skills. Now the cynics  will call this out saying, ‘well it’s not quite free because they are going to take up our time and resources without giving anything back’ but the reality is that in a labour tight market how big is the exposure upon your resources really? Many an inexperienced employee given the chance will repay your commitment tenfold and who’s to say they aren’t your next rising star?

Others may suggest this is a revival of the school time principal of ‘work experience’ but it’s a little more than that because of the level of skills which these individuals are offering. In today’s society when everyone wants ‘it’ now there’s something refreshing about people being prepared to put something in without the promise of anything in return.

We currently have access to a number of individuals who meet this description so if anyone is interested in finding out more, please contact Ambition Technology.

I attended a well publicised event recently and was expecting to be informed, educated and somewhat entertained, it is technology after all and technology is constantly changing. So, I was disappointed to find I had wasted a trip in the pouring rain.

Drenched and annoyed I walked into the office and began to describe the stands; the lack of innovation and poor promotional merchandise. I was beaten; my colleagues were much smarter and had remained in the office dry and unscarred.

As I reflected, I began to wonder how relevant technology exhibitions really are and how much ROI the exhibitor receives. Is it fair to say that exhibitions are becoming more and more like tradeshows? Who is their target market and what are their objectives?

The Shirtman – Ambition’s erstwhile football correspondent- is packing his bags for South Africa, ready to bring you his humorous World Cup diary and match predictions for Australia and England.

Sign up for the competition and you’ll receive the Shirtman’s diary and make your predictions (result/score/scorer) for 14 selected matches following the Socceroos and England through the group and knockout stages.

You can win some exciting prizes including soccer shirts, South African wine and the Ambition World Cup trophy

Sign up now : http://shirtman.ambitiongrouplimited.com/ and we will send you an email when you can start tipping!

Follow the shirtman:

facebook.com/theshirtman

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Subcribe to the Blog RSS feed

If you have any questions about how to login or make your picks then please email the Shirtman

Typically a “User Group” is a program designed to encourage and support communities who want to hold regular meetings in their area; to discuss their particular specialty in the technology field. The purpose of these gatherings is to provide a forum in which technical specialists can share best practice and expertise and can in turn obtain feedback from the user community.

Take for example, Grant Paisley who is responsible for running the “Sydney SQL Server User Group” www.sqlserver.org.au

When asked how and why he got involved in running the SQL Server User Group, this is what he had to say…

Questions:

1. How and why did you become involved in running this User Group?

I’ve run a lot of user groups in my time; it is something I’m very passionate about. I’ve always been the one left standing when everyone else steps back.

www.sqlserver.org.au was previously run by Microsoft. I own and run a company in Sydney called “Angry Koala”, which specialises in the SQL field, specifically in Business Intelligence – we turn data into knowledge. Angry Koala took over the SQL Server User Group over five years ago, and we now have between 40- 80 guests per meeting (in Sydney). Other states like Melbourne have up to 120 guests at a time and we also have user groups in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart and Perth.

2. What is the purpose of a User Group?

The purpose of the user group is to build branding and community. For example, one of our members went to work in the UK for 12 years, and the first thing he did upon returning to Australia was join the SQL Server User Group. This allowed him to reconnect with other SQL Server specialists, find out what was going on in the market, the hot topics and employment opportunities etc. Glyn Llewelyn is now my GM as a result of joining the group.

3. What are the current hot topics in SQL Server?

I will be speaking at our next meeting next week about new technology that allows you to get over 100 million rows in excel. If you visit our website at www.sqlserver.org.au and click on the link 100 Million rows – instant access – your desktop – Self service BI is here (Grant Paisley) you can find the detail.

4. What is the best result you have seen from this User Group, i.e. solutions via open discussion, employment opportunities via networking/ referrals etc?

At one of our recent meetings, three speakers got up at once to talk about the same technology – Integration Services. They spoke about the same solution, but all had different techniques to achieving it. It was a very informative learning experience for a lot of us who had only ever tried one of the techniques, but could now walk away knowing there are other ways of doing it. It encourages you to think outside the square and out of your comfort zone enabling you to open your eyes to other ways of doing things.

5. What advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own user group?

I strongly believe you need to be passionate about what you are presenting. I love technology and sharing my ideas and experiences. It’s not just a branding exercise, but something I get a lot out of and enjoy sharing with others. I often walk away from a presentation on a bit of a high.

I would also encourage user interaction. User groups are not just about one person getting up and speaking, but the whole group getting involved, sharing their thoughts and ideas, and feeling like part of the group. We have people write their names on a name tag just so everyone knows who they are, and it can spark a conversation.

I also invite vendors to come along and speak at the meetings- I often have guests from Microsoft attend our meetings and I personally have been a guest speaker at the New Zealand user group. The point here is that I approached them. If you want to be known in the market and get your group out there, you have to be willing to seek branding opportunities and not be afraid to contact people.

Grant can be contacted at grant@angrykoala.com.au

You are invited to attend the Planit  2009 Software Testing Index on the 28th of April, 2010. Released annually, the Index is considered the benchmark report on software testing and quality assurance in Australia and New Zealand.

The event is free and encourages you to network with colleagues as you learn more about the industry, qualification options and career opportunities in software testing. It is a fast growing area of IT with rewarding employment prospects for qualified test professionals.

Presented by Chris Carter, MD Planit Software Testing, Chairman of the ANZTB and Vice President of the ISTQB. Topics will include; demand for software testing, project budgets and resources, impact of the GFC and 2010 challenges, job outlook, qualifications, career prospects and earning potential, review of Planit’s virtual learning environment and ISTQB certification options.

Details: April 28, 2010 from 6:00 – 7:30pm at the Mercure Hotel- Railway Square, Central Station, Sydney.

To register please email:  info@planit.net.au or call 1300 922 964

RSVP by April 21, 2010