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Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for users of contract IT services. In this issue:
• Optimising choice when choosing IT contract specialists
• Tech View - z/OS.e and the environment
• The top 10 technical roles of 2005/06
• Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Amanda Meek
• New case studies on Linux, RACF consolidation and disaster recovery
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How many CVs are too many?
Jerry Smart explains the benefits of using suppliers with a targeted approach to proposing candidates for contract positions
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How many CVs are too many?
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It is always difficult for an employment business to know just how many specialists to propose to the customer for a given vacancy.
Many customers have a policy that limits the number of proposals per supplier. This has the advantage of making the employment business focus on the customer?s requirement and prevents the customer being inundated with CVs that ?nearly match?. The downside is that they may not find out about good candidates who cannot be proposed because of this restriction.
When it comes to sourcing specialist skills, what if there are genuinely several good candidates all of whom have something slightly different to offer in addition to their key skills? Does the supplier put forward the candidates with the best skills, irrespective of whether they have worked at the site before or where they live for example? Or do they propose all of them and highlight the advantages of each and let the customer decide who to select for interview? A specialist supplier may be able to offer a more selective and refined approach.
By establishing a close dialogue with the customer, a specialist employment business will be better placed to tailor the proposal to the customer?s need. After all, a customer who has been made aware of all of the choices available will be in the best position to make a much more informed decision than one who has only had a limited choice.
For the right choice, contact us at sales@bmeurope.com
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Tech View: z/OS.e and the environment
Paul Smith, Technical Manager at B & M looks at some of the ways that organisations are seeking to improve their green credentials
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z/OS.e is one of IBM?s scenarios for running UNIX on a mainframe and was developed from the UNIX System Services suite currently available under z/OS. As Gartner noted in its 10 year IT Vision, one of the factors driving change in business is ?a fundamental shift in the balance of power between big business and the consumer and between supplier and customer?. Two factors that can drive this are the desire to be environmentally friendly and the dependence on legacy systems. Newer technology can help with both these problems by reducing costs and the levels of resource needed.
So what can organisations do about costs? Let?s assume that a company has a z/800 2064-002 (rated at 30 MSUs per CPU) and a typical software spread. Using environmentally-friendly EWLC licensing they could have one engine for z/OS at a little over US $12,000 per month, but second engines for z/OS.e at less than US $5,500 per month. The cost benefits are obvious. A company using this approach could save around US $500,000 per year in licensing costs alone (Source: ITJungle). The z8 series, for example, is air cooled, takes up less space due to its small footprint and uses less power than older machines with the same MSU Rating, thus saving on utility and resource costs.
z/OS.e is cheaper than ?zLinux?, but it is not a full-function environment. It supports WebSphere, BEA Weblogic, SAP and Siebel 7 among others, but doesn't allow companies to run many compliers, or traditional transaction servers such as CICS or IMS. One of IBM?s solutions is to run zLinux, z/OS.e and z/OS effectively using the best bits of each platform. z/OS.e can be exploited to reduce the resources needed by legacy systems by taking the front-end (customer-facing) processing and leaving the back-end (DB) support on z/OS.
Environmentally aware organisations are looking at how they can benefit from a wide variety of tools and systems offered by IBM and the many ISVs that supply z/OS.e versions of their solutions.
To find out about specialists experienced in z/OS and Linux please contact us at sales@bmeurope.com
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The top 10 technical roles of 2005/06
With the 2005/06 financial year now behind us, B & M has compiled a list of the top 10 technical roles sought by customers over the last year based on an analysis of our customers' requirements. They are ranked in order of demand:
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- Unix System Administrator - customers have mainly sought specialists for roles working with AIX, HP-UX and Solaris platforms.
- Storage Specialist - the key demands that we have seen are for SAN expertise.
- WebSphere Specialist - the need for knowledge of WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ Series continues to be in high demand.
- Security Specialist - we have seen continuing needs for specialists to support IBM Security Server (RACF) integration projects.
- Systems Test / Operations Analyst - customers continue to require a broad range of skills and platform knowledge in this area.
- Network Specialist - the demand for expertise in working with firewalls, routers, switches, TCP/IP and VPN predominate.
- MVS Systems Programmer - the demand for specialists with traditional skills, often with Sysplex and storage management expertise, continues.
- CICS Systems Programmer - customers have continued to require specialists with CICSPLEX/SM skills.
- ORACLE Specialist / Database Administrator - we have seen the need for database design, migrations, performance tuning and support on all platforms.
- DB2 Systems Programmer / Database Administrator - customers particularly require database design, data warehousing, performance tuning and support for DB2 systems.
If you need to source specialists with high levels of expertise and skills in these areas, contact us at sales@bmeurope.com
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Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Amanda Meek
In this issue, we profile Accounts Controller Amanda Meek
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Following the completion of her BSc in Media Technology at the University of Glamorgan, Amanda worked for the telecoms company NTL where she provided Internet support. Amanda then moved into a role at the Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities, collecting primary care data to evaluate whether health promotion could be increased by annual health reviews.
Amanda relocated to Hampshire in 2001, where she worked as an Accounts Administrator for Vision Re, a company dedicated to the provision of audiovisual supplies. Here she processed the company payroll and carried out purchasing and financial functions. Whilst working for Vision Re, Amanda completed the AAT NVQ levels 2 and 3 in Accounting. Amanda joined B & M in March 2005 where she is now responsible for running the accounts department, maintaining the payroll function for internal staff, ensuring prompt issue and payment of invoices and maintaining regular contact with B & M specialists, customers and suppliers as well as performing credit control.
Since joining B & M, Amanda has completed her AAT NVQ level 4 at Technician level and is currently studying for AAT NVQ2 and NVQ3 in Payroll.
When out of the office, Amanda takes great interest in travelling, particularly where anything to do with Disney or roller-coasters are concerned. Amanda also frequently travels back to South Wales to visit friends and family.
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Want to find out more about what B & M does in your market sector? We have recently published new case studies of work that we have carried out in the financial services, FMCG and telecoms sectors.
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B & M has specialised in delivering skilled ICT specialists to meet the needs of leading organisations throughout Europe since 1992. We focus exclusively on providing consultancy, technical services and support for z/OS, UNIX and Linux enterprise systems, including third-party systems software, open systems and networking connectivity. We add real value for HR and IT professionals by taking the time to understand their needs and applying best practice methods to deliver results. To find out more about our approach to providing the best skills for each business, go to www.bmeurope.com B & M Europe Limited
www.bmeurope.com
+44 (0)118 981 1880
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