IT Project Management Specialists - Who are they?

Earlier in the week I was having a Coffee with an ex CIO of a relatively large New Zealand bank and the conversation got onto the topic of naming the Top 3 Project Management Services firms. Effectively those organisations whom purely specialise in providing Project Management services to external parties (this might services on setting up a PMO, introducing Project Management methodologies / principles etc).

There are many out in the marketplace that have this as an offering but certainly have it as their absolute specialisation. One that came to mind was Project Plus (a Wellington based outfit whom do some great work), but it was certainly a battle to name my "Top 3".

Many clients use the big vendors for such services, but it does put a smile on my face when they (vendors) come to agencies for people and then throw a rather large margin on the contractor and ship them off to a client. Why doesn't the end user simply come out to the market place and save themselves considerable money? I do know the answer - obviously when they engage a Services firm there is a little more responsiblity and accountability on the Services firm as the person will come with their 'rubberstamp' and will use their methodologies etc. Where if they engage a contractor directly from an agency due to 99% of agencies being 'labour hire' oriented organisations they don't get that same level of accountability.

Anyway feel free to comment on who you think are other well regarded specialist IT Project Management organisations!

Scottish Humour

Please note that the language in this radio prank is rather rich, BUT is one of the funniest radio pranks I have heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InF9B3rParg

P.S. It isn't recruitment related

The return of Azimuth Consulting?

I read on www.itbrief.co.nz earlier in the week where Azimuth had one a contract to redo the www.gets.govt.nz website (it certain is in need of a revamp as it certainly isn't user friendly).

When I first moved into the IT Recruitment world at Eden Brown, Azimuth was the shining light in the 'management consulting world'. They had the plush offices in the BNZ Centre and were hiring like mad. From memory they were sending people to the Philippines for big Telco related contracts, hiring people via the phone from the UK and paying very good salaries.

Then I think the wheels came off and work dried up, some big projects didn't go as well as they should have and people got tired of travelling throughout Asia for assignments. In saying that I am pleased to see that they have bounced back and winning more local work as they were a client who I enjoyed working with.

I watch with interest what actual field they intend to specialise in

Software Freedom Day

Today I popped my head into the Software Freedom Day - www.softwarefreedomday.org.nz and it was fair to say there weren't a lot of Microsoft fans attending! I was only there for around 15-mins but somehow got engaged in a conversation about this open source CRM called SugarCRM. Unfortunately for me, but probably fortunately for the two other guys I wasn't able to really contribute to the conversation apart from asking some pretty basic questions on it.

I did pick up from my 15-mins that there weren't many people from say Microsoft NZ or other Microsoft shops such as Intergen attending or advertising. The 920 stand and 920 posters were in full flight which was pleasing.

There were many remarks about the SUN Microsystems T-Shirts and how many of them were XXL in size - most of the people I saw were rather skinny white guys, hence there were a huge amount of T-Shirts still lying around.

It was pity we don't have a huge amount of Linux Administration or Ruby on Rails positions going as we would of been in heaven at this event. I believe there was over 200 people that had attended so a good job done by the organising committee.

One other thing that the event highlighted was that there is very, very strong and passionate open source community in Wellington!

TV as a Recruitment Sourcing Tool

There is probably a bloody good reason why it is not being used(possibly due to the cost), but why aren't agencies or even companies using Television to push key positions or an organisatons brand?

I am going to show my ignorance as I don't have an appreciation of what a 20 second advert on primetime TV is worth but for a key position such as a CFO, CEO or CIO it would be extremely interesting to see what results would come. I know that Absolute IT did some advertising around two or three years ago when they promoted their 12-mth gaurantee for placements that were made on a retained basis at 19%. I know that we at Ninetwenty have talked about using TV to promote a particular campaign but due to the timeframes were we given it didn't happen (that is probably another reason why it might be difficult - timeframes involved).

Thinking about it further I am not sure if people would actively respond to a TV ad promoting a job, unless it was for an extremely rear job (possibly CEO of Adidas NZ or when TVNZ seeks a new Sports Reporter for the news at 6 o'clock).

I do know that this type of sourcing strategy does occur in some countries but like I said earlier price could be an issue in little old NZ?

A Latte or a Flat White? A Double or Single Shot? The Cost is....

I do love a good Latte and don't mind paying a reasonable price for one.

What I do find interesting is when you go to a Cafe where all Flat White's / Latte's are a double shot and you might ask for a single shot, but there is no discount in the price.

For those who order Long Blacks and ask for a 'triple shot' I guarantee their is a cost for the additional shot of Coffee, so why don't Cafes reduce the price for single shots?

Did Vodafone plant a "body"

Correct me if I am wrong but I was sure I saw a news article where Vodafone "planted" a guy into the line to buy the new iPhone - in fact he was first in line, which led to hype and news coverage , heightening the 'drama' and 'excitement' regarding the phone.

Some might say 'what a great marketing ploy' and it was, if it is true, but what is starting to rub me up the wrong way is that this, along with other things is starting to turn me away from the brand. The fact that we (Ninetwenty) are a current Vodafone business customer and the service we receive is horrible (Account Managers not returning phone calls or e-mails and broken promises).