<![CDATA[Teamsoft Technologies

<![CDATA[Teamsoft Technologies - Blog]]>Sat, 01 Mar 2025 21:51:19 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[40% of Working People Will be Freelancers by 2020]]>Thu, 14 May 2015 16:58:52 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/40-of-working-people-will-be-freelancers-by-2020

This study by software company Intuit has predicted that over 60 million Americans will be “contingent workers” by 2020. That’s a startling statistic but Intuit has data to back up the claim. After the Great Recession of 2008 it was a slow uphill battle to raise the employment rate in America in all sectors but one- contingent, independent workers. From 2009-2012, during the heart of the recovery process from the recession, the amount of temporary employees rose by 29% (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). This increase in temporary workers includes jobs of varying degrees from all industries, not just tech.

Why is freelancing the future trend?
Although freelancing isn’t restricted to just tech jobs, the increase in freelancing has technology to thank. One of the many reasons freelancing continues to increase is because it’s become increasingly easy to telecommute. With the ability to share and collaborate on work through high definition video chats, screen shares, and data transfers, working on-location is practically the same as actually being in the office.

The cost of living in big cities working at big business is getting so expensive it’s nearly impossible to afford a sustainable life. This is why many people save on rent and live on the outskirts of big cities then make the commute. However, this can lead to having a one or two hour commute to work every day. That adds up to an extra 10-20 hours of commuting you do every week just to get to work! This seems insane to some but it’s a norm for others. By working from home this allows for a lot of saved time, effort, and money.

What to expect
Companies and employees can come together through the use of technology to be mobile and maximize efficiency, productivity, and mental well-being. Working on project-based pay as an independent worker allows the employer to closely track the employee's work without the risk of hiring someone full time for a job that won’t take 40 hours a week. The freelancer in return gets schedule flexibility and the opportunity to work multiple projects at once, accomplishing the extra tasks during those potential 20 hours of commute they’re no longer wasting.

Available jobs for freelancers are exploding, as are applications specifically used to find, track, and pay them. There are companies seeking workers to fulfill jobs in all industries including marketing, legal, healthcare, design, and architecture. There is endless opportunity for independent workers and as long as you have wifi, most people can work from anywhere.

]]><![CDATA[6 Essential Tips to Hire the Right Employee]]>Wed, 13 May 2015 18:35:27 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/6-essential-tips-to-hire-the-right-employeeA constant variable when it comes to running a successful business is having good employees who keep the business going and growing. Obviously the place where finding the right employee starts is at the hiring process. Sometimes a good cover letter and resume are merely a combination of exaggerations and good writing, rather than an accurate description of the candidate.

On the other hand, less-than-stellar resumes can be hiding diligent and loyal workers who would be a perfect fit for your company. This is why it’s important to hire the person who is right for your business, and that isn’t always the person who looks best on paper. Below are 6 tips to hiring the right employee for your needs:

Raise your Chances for Success: This may be a no-brainer but the more people you interview, the likelier it is that you’ll find an amazing candidate. It can be tempting to settle for someone who fits the bill but needs a lot of work, simply because you’re burnt out from the interviewing process. Keep going and keep in mind that the perfect employee might be the next person that you weren’t going to interview.

Be Aware of your Office Culture: Employee retention is very important when it comes to saving effort and money, and if you hire someone with consideration to how they would fit in the office culture it would make them more likely to thrive and be happy, and a happy employee isn’t looking for another job. The atmosphere of the workplace should be discussed during the interview process to make sure that the candidate is comfortable with the operations.

Be Aggressive: If pickings are slim and you aren’t seeing the turnout you wanted from a job posting it’s usually in your best interest to hold out and try other forms of recruitment rather than take the best pick from a group of applicants you aren’t excited about. Besides posting jobs online you can reach out to your employees for referrals, use LinkedIn as a source, use social media outlets, and network.

Know What to Ask: If you don’t ask the right questions in an interview and end up hiring someone to find out that they aren’t as skilled as you had assumed then it’s your fault for not asking the right questions that would’ve determined that. Asking questions that require an in depth answer get you a lot farther in getting to know a candidate than asking yes or no questions.

Check References: This is important because you have no idea if the person in front of you is who they say they are. They could easily be stretching the truth or flat out lying about their abilities or the real reason they left their last job. You could be about to hire another company’s problem employee, so to avoid that just simply reach out to a reference and get a sense for what the candidate is like from another perspective.

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover: Similar to the earlier statement about less-than-stellar resumes hiding stellar employees, someone’s appearance can be just as deceiving. Disheveled and inarticulate employees can turn out to be amazingly hard and diligent workers.

]]><![CDATA[Offshore Outsourcing Benefits]]>Mon, 06 Apr 2015 18:38:36 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/offshore-outsourcing-benefits

Being able to delegate is an integral component of being a good leader. Acknowledging the advantages of handing off projects and requirements to someone else who may be more qualified or skilled in that realm is the start to reaping the benefits of outsourcing. In today’s aggressive business world companies need to offer great products with competitive prices. Offshore outsourcing part of a business process reduces risk and cuts overhead cost, allowing companies to stay profitable and results in using resources both onshore and offshore in the most effective manner.

Aside from the benefits that companies see individually, as a whole, offshoring is making a positive impact to the global economy by creating more jobs. Although there is the occasional frustration with having technical support offshore, the larger benefit is an increase in jobs, which was found by a Global Insight study sponsored by the Information Technology Association of America.

With today’s technology we are capable of having high-definition video conferences, screen shares, and file transfers instantly from almost anywhere in the world. Considering the globalization of IT it makes perfect sense to hire employees around the world. With huge incentives like lower international wages with the result of the same quality of work it’s a win-win for both parties when offshore workers are receiving competitive rates compared to the work they would get in their country.

The study by Global Insight finds that offshoring is not reducing the number of jobs in the U.S., which is the common misconception held on the topic of offshore outsourcing. In fact, it concludes that offshoring is actually creating jobs in result of a more efficient economy. In 2003 around 194,000 new jobs were created because of outsourcing IT jobs to offshore. Those 194,000 new jobs were both IT and non-IT jobs, meaning that the positive effects of outsourcing are felt outside of the IT field.

IT jobs are changing, and there are now highly qualified programmers all over the globe. This should be taken advantage of because offshore outsourcing IT jobs can directly benefit your company. Consider these strategic benefits:

By using resources already available offshore rather than in-house, your company doesn’t have to accrue expensive equipment and software costs.

The clear benefit is lower overhead costs.
You receive support by the software outsourcing company included with the software so you have somewhere to turn when trouble arises.
This allows for mitigation of risk because outsourcing companies give a guarantee of professional responsibility, meaning, when something goes wrong the problem won’t be blamed on your company.
By using an IT company that works internationally it’s a safe bet that they’ve experienced and solved all types of IT issues. If an issue ever comes up for you they have the experience and know-how to solve it immediately, with no learning curve.

]]><![CDATA[Trouble Finding the Right Candidate? Read This.]]>Wed, 18 Mar 2015 17:27:54 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/trouble-finding-the-right-candidate-read-thisWith the tech boom that’s going on right now it’s no surprise that a recent study reports 59% of IT employers plan on adding temporary or contract worker in 2015. When hiring short-term or contract workers it makes sense to outsource the work or even the hiring process altogether. A lot of IT employers are having trouble finding the right candidates for the job requirements, and considering more and more requirements are coming in, employers need to find the right fit fast.

With outsourcing comes the capability of hiring from a much larger pool of candidates that spreads worldwide. This is a huge advantage with hiring offshore employees, however with an increased pool of candidates comes an increased amount of applicants, and that includes those who lack the proper skills. Since the funnel has been increased it can be harder to find the right person for the job, 62% of IT employers said there’s a major gap between the skills job candidates have versus the skills that their company needs.

In order to hire the best employee for the job recruiters have planned their strategies for 2015, here are the top IT recruitment trends found by surveying IT employers:

Increased Salaries
Increasing salaries will bring in interested candidates who consider themselves as being worth a higher amount, which should correlate to having higher ability and expertise. 75% will increase starting salaries for incoming employees with 87% planning on increasing salaries for existing employees.

Recent College Graduates & Interns
Taking on recent graduates and interns typically calls for a longer amount of time onboarding and teaching them, however this can be to your advantage to take on employees when they’re just starting out in the business because they require a lower salary and could turn out to be stellar employees. 70% plan on hiring recent college graduates with 35% planning on increasing their number of recent college graduate hires from last year, and 52% plan on hiring paid interns.

Retired Workers
This opens up the job pool to people who are very experienced, and also have been taken out of the running for another company. 53% of IT employers said they are likely, or very likely, to hire retired employees from another company this year.

Potential Positions
Even if there isn’t a current position open, if a position is likely to open up it can be worth the time to recruit early and continuously in order to find the best candidate. 61% continuously recruit for job openings that may potentially open up in the future.

Aiding in Further Education
If you can’t find applicants who hold all of the skills you are looking for, consider supporting your employees to get education to become skilled in exactly what you want. 50% provide financial help for employees getting advanced degrees and going back to school, while 23% pay for it completely.

More Flexibility
Allowing for flexible scheduling or telecommuting can open up your job to potential candidates who need flexibility in their workplace. This opens up your company to more potential candidates. For 2015, 60% of IT employers will offer more flexible schedules and work arrangements for employees.

Statistics are taken from a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder, surveying IT employers

]]><![CDATA[Top 7 Benefits Businesses Actually See from Agile]]>Tue, 03 Feb 2015 23:30:49 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/top-7-benefits-businesses-actually-see-from-agile

When asking nearly 4,000 agile users in the IT industry what they’ve seen by implementing agile development there was an astounding amount of positive feedback. Considering that 94% of organizations are using agile it’s obvious it has major benefits, so what are those actual improvements that companies are seeing by adopting agile? Here’s the breakdown:

Managing Changing Priorities
The largest improvement seen across the board by agile users was the ability to manage changing priorities. 87% respondents saw improvement in their process. This only makes sense because the foundation of agile development is being able to adapt to changes in requirements during the cycle.

Productivity
Increased productivity in workers correlates to increased output, which would result in higher revenue. That’s why the fact that 84% of respondents saw an increase in team productivity is reason enough to be agile. Having a more efficient and productive team is one of the greatest benefits a project lead could want.

Visibility
82% of respondents said that project visibility improved, and this is certainly a huge benefit. Agile allows all members of the application lifecycle to manage and follow the status of a project from stakeholders, to team members, and product owners. Agile teams update their work daily so project managers no longer have to wait for weekly roundups to check in on the overview of a project.

Motivation
Amazingly, changing the structure of a software development method has the power to boost morale! Yes, 79% of respondents answered that they saw an increase in team morale and motivation. That can be a hard thing to adjust so any positive influence on motivation is certainly something to keep around.

Predictability
Teams are more capable of better predicting delivery dates and making deadlines, with another 79% of respondents saying they saw this get better with becoming agile. Once a team becomes accustomed to practicing agile it becomes easier to achieve predictable deliverability, but this isn’t something to expect right out of the gate when switching to agile because a team will need a few sprint cycles to learn the rhythm before hitting their stride.

Quality
78% saw an enhancement in software quality itself, which is a great statement. This makes sense considering the older and more traditional models of waterfall approaches where schedule pressures could lead to compromised quality of work. Waterfall models have fixed scopes and fixed dates and when something occurs that wasn’t accounted for it throws off the timeline.

Speed
Businesses are usually in a rush to get their products to market as soon as possible because this could mean they miss the peak of the market. If a product took an extra month or two to release then that could leave them irrelevant. This is why a lot of businesses turn to agile- 77% saw a faster time to market, which is a very big deal.

Those were only the top seven benefits that were reported, but there are many more. Just from hearing the first seven it's a wonder that only 94% of the industry has adopted agile. Below is the full list of responses given by respondents when asked for actual improvements they saw through the use of agile.

Taken from data by nearly 4,000 agile users in the IT industry questioned by the annual State of Agile survey

]]><![CDATA[7 Reasons to Choose Outsourcing]]>Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:14:27 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/7-reasons-to-choose-outsourcing

Companies large and small are turning to outsourcing as a solution to growing their business while keeping payroll and overhead costs in check. Outsourcing is the process of obtaining work from external sources like agencies, independent contractors, or freelancers, which can all be onshore or offshore. Whether going the route of onshore or offshore, both can positively directly impact a company’s top and bottom line. Below are some of the most moving reasons to choose outsourcing for successfully running an enterprise:

It allows for delegation of time consuming tasks and processes to the external worker, freeing up local workers to continue on with core business aspects.
Having employees offshore enables your company to leverage an international knowledge base and expands access across the world
Lower labor and operational costs are the top reasons to outsource work, and when executed correctly it adds great gain to revenue and savings
Many companies outsource to gain resources from external offices not available to them
Specifically offshore outsourcing enables companies to mitigate risk
By handing work off to the team offshore this allows for a business to realize the potential need and benefits of re-engineering
By moving production or service delivery to a new area this can expand access to new markets and get closer to end users.

It’s important to remember that everything is situational- a particular project might be perfect for one company to outsource offshore whereas another company might need the project fulfilled close to home. The reasons for outsourcing vary from one company to the next, but the benefits of choosing to outsource can be seen by leading companies worldwide.

]]><![CDATA[Strategic IT Trends for 2015]]>Fri, 09 Jan 2015 17:53:45 GMThttp://www.teamsofttech.com/blog/strategic-it-trends-for-2015

Gartner’s IT experts have come together to determine the top 10 technology trends for this year. In order to make the cut these trends need to have the potential to significantly affect individuals, businesses, and IT organizations in the next three years. These trends are seen as forces behind creating new technology business opportunities so they're something to look out for.

Computing Everywhere
As technology becomes more readily available mobile devices and wearables are creating a need for on-the-go computing. The environment in which users are computing is changing and IT needs to keep that in mind. User Experience needs to be adapted for the rapid and simplified experience customers now expect.

The Internet of Things (IoT)
This is the development of the Internet where everyday objects will have network connectivity and have the ability to transfer data without the need for human interaction. IoT has created four usage models (manage, monetize, operate, and extend), which are not limited to any one industry, so enterprises all around should be leveraging these models.

3D Printing
The sale of 3D printers will grow by 98% in 2015 and over the next three years low-cost printers will become available where we will see a rapid growth in industrial use. This will make 3D printing a huge trend as it demonstrates how it is a sustainable and profitable way to cut costs through short-run manufacturing, improved design, and streamlined prototyping.

Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics
With the Internet of Things taking over most devices there will be a massive amount of analytics coming from every device. Every app will become and analytic app, embedded systems will create vast amounts of both structured and unstructured data to be analyzed so organizations need to determine how and what to filter out.

Context-Rich Systems
Intelligent technology that uses analytics to become aware to their surroundings and adjust accordingly is already in the works, and in 2015 we will more of it. Context-aware security already holds this capability where the technology understands the context of the user’s request, then adjusts its response according to the context. This process simplifies the interaction between human and computer, making the computing world less complex.

Smart Machines
Smart machines are a combination of analytics and context-understanding systems. Advanced algorithms will allow systems to understand their environment, then adapt, allowing them to act for themselves once the process has been learned.

Cloud/Client Computing
The immediate focus for cloud/client computing is portability and syncing content and application state across numerous devices and environments. Next the focus will be on the simultaneous use of television and mobiles to enhance multiple screen viewing where both mobile devices and wearables will add to the experience.

Software-Defined Apps and Infrastructure
Agile programming will be the only answer now that applications need to be extremely responsive and flexible to changing requirements. Computing will have to move away from static to dynamic models if a system is going to survive the rapidly changing demands of the new digital business where systems must be scaled up or down suddenly.

Web-Scale IT
This is the prediction that more and more organizations will begin imitating tech giants like Amazon and Google, where cloud service providers are merged with world class computing abilities in an IT business setting. The initial step towards Web-Scale IT is implementing DevOps- the marriage of the development and operations process where they work together for continuously adaptive development.

Risk-Based Security and Self-protection
Finally, Gartner predicts that security will continue to be a main consideration for all of IT. With the numerous security issues of 2014, self-protection is going to be a trend for this year. Risk mitigation and assessment will become a more common and heavily implemented process. Security testing and security application design will help aid in the process.

]]>