Soft 2001 Inc's competitive edge lies in its principle asset, the people we employ, their collective experiences, unparalleled expertise and contagious enthusiasm behind each client engagement!
Again, our people have had an undeniable impact on our past and anticipated future success and are the reason why we have enjoyed a long track record of success. We have also gained many invaluable lessons from executing over 2000 client engagements over the last two decades. We have in my observation, demonstrated lasting versatility by incorporating a variety of delivery models to meet our unique client's needs.
Soft 2001Inc needs to continue to build its brand, market share and fully leverage its near 25 year history. Our company has a compelling story and it has to be told and heard by clients and consultants alike. Soft 2001 Inc ultimately needs to segment its marketing efforts by industry and technology vertical and where it can replicate its successes with maximum top line and bottom line management and lastly, capture market share with minimum up-front investment. The company's core infrastructure needs to be strengthened and diversified to achieve the next rung of success. We are close, but not quite there yet! Soft 2001 Inc also needs to increase its Federal sector business by incorporating a more systematic approach to responding to proposal opportunities and by improving on its market intelligence, turnaround time and cost per proposal.
Simply put, Soft 2001 Inc delivers the consistent value and expertise that our customers demand and deserve. Our clients hire us because of our long and successful track record of refining their hiring and retention processes, setting achievable goals and expectations and lastly delivering on business targets that ultimately transcend our client's businesses to be more profitable and agile.
Our consultants tell us that they enjoy our trademark professionalism and our atmosphere for learning new skills. We invest heavily in developing our consultants to become Industry leaders and at the end of the day "word travels"! Our recruiters stay abreast of Industry changes, the latest technologies, Legal, Immigration and Federal regulations and our consultants gain the benefit of our expanded knowledge and due diligence. We encourage our employees and consultants to stay ahead of the "technology curve", whether it is to become more efficient through advanced technology or education, advancing their programming skills and gaining desirable certifications. We offer continued training and resources for our consultants because we believe "You cannot stand still in the IT consulting business and must commit to learning something new every day"!
The landscape is ever changing and there is always competition. In fact, we would be wary of entering a field without any competition for we would have to trail blaze and incur significant outlay of to understand what the industry needs. Thankfully, we can and have learned from our competition's mistakes and leverage our own unique opportunities and service brand through established business outlets. There are always new buzzwords – Today it is the cloud computing, yesterday it was SOA and wireless APPS, the industry moves fast but in a predictable way. Our business model is committed to addressing and harnessing the new technology and creating market opportunity.
Each person has his unique disposition, inclination and career needs. After reviewing and analyzing the "plethora of choices" available in the marketplace, find an area that you are comfortable with and will satisfy your career needs. Consider that key skill areas change every 3 to 5 years. Utilize job boards like Dice, Monster and CareerBuilder to spot changes in hiring patterns, compensation and industry demand. Be realistic, If your phone is not ringing, then maybe you need to "change up" your resume or your chosen field! ERP packages like SAP, Oracle Financials and MS Dynamics AX are generally suited for consultants who have prior experience with Business, Financial and Accounting systems. It is more difficult to get your first project in these areas but the compensation is generally higher and may involve travel. Be prepared to be flexible and mobile! It is important to pick a winner but equally difficult to pick one area of focus or specialty… It is a safe career play to develop SQL Server, SSRS, SSIS, MVC, Crystal Reports Java/J2EE/SOA application programming skills. There is high demand for Java/J2EE programmers. Be familiar with the programming tools and consider Middleware, GUIs, App servers and frameworks that consistently align with this space. Consider, it is more important to master a skill than to have multiple skills half developed. Think about it, "How many skills can one person learn or master"?
Some lasting advice, focus on Mastering the SQL command, database extraction, translation and loading. Tools like Cognos and Datastage are fairly easy to master. There is plenty of opportunity in the entry level space for BI programmers although the pay is moderate. Advanced Data Warehousing consultants are highly paid and jobs are easily available. That said, picking the right Data Warehousing tool is important. Business Analyst / Quality Analyst: Best option for entry level positions for job candidates not inclined to do "hard core" programming. Advanced QA Analysts and Business Analysts with deep functional experience in Financial, Insurance, Banking and Pharma enjoy a premium deamnd. It is also important to get a competitive edge by mastering QTP, Rational Rose, RUP and Loadrunner. Consider, Mainframe, DB2 CICS, COBOL, RPG, ASSEMBLER programming but be aware that It takes a few years to master these subjects. Unfortunately most of the Mainframe projects have been off-shored to India and the Phillipines to companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, IBM, Mahendra, Patni among others. There is little development on these specific technologies. Note, there are approximately nine jobs overseas for each job in the U.S.
Our Clients and primary vendors regularly interact with our marketing teams to source our people. Over the years, clients trust our judgment, our technical screening and interview processes. We are committed to helping our consultants realize greater pay rewards by investing in resources that improve marketing our candidates and ultimately reducing the time to market. Higher candidate pay results from better positioning, training and retooling. It also comes from persistency and follow through with client engagement opportunities. Our job is to match the opportunity to the qualified consultant ahead of our competition and at a pay rate that exceeds our consultant's expectations.
Soft 2001 Inc needs to continue to build its brand, market share and leverage its near 25 year history. Its compelling story has to be told and heard by its customer base. Soft 2001 Inc ultimately needs to segment it's marketing efforts by industry and technology vertical and where it can replicate its successes with maximum top line and bottom line revenue, capture market share with minimum up-front investment. The company's core infrastructure needs to be strengthened and diversified to achieve the next rung of success. We are close, but not quite there yet. Soft 2001 Inc needs to increase its Federal sector business by a more systematic approach to responding to proposal opportunities and by improving on its market intelligence, turnaround time and cost per proposal.
