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| CORE IT Home > Our Company > E-Bulletin |
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Volume 1 Welcome to the first issue of our e-bulletin. Please feel free to forward it to your colleagues. |
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CORE IT Consultants: Connect to the CORE Talent In December, 2003, CORE Information Technology Consultants Ltd. (CORE IT) first started operations. Today, CORE IT delivers professional IT services and solutions to federal and provincial government departments, private sector organizations and crown corporations operating in the National Capital Region, the area surrounding Ottawa/Gatineau, and across Canada. "Finding high caliber, top quality IT resources can be difficult, time consuming and expensive," said Rolf Christensen, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, CORE IT and CORE Software Corporation. "We formed CORE IT with the vision of creating a company that would be the single source for organizations looking to meet their needs for strategic IT resources, consistently, successfully without interruption, and in a cost-effective manner." By leveraging a full-time, in-house group of core talent and a large database of prequalified contract consultants, CORE IT delivers expert services, including Professional Services, E-Business Solutions and Permanent Recruitment/Executive Search. Professional Services: As a professional services based organization, it is CORE IT's mission to provide the highest quality IT resources to each and every client. These services include, but are not limited to, project management, procurement services, ERP solutions, application development, database development, quality control and ITIL service desk support. E-Business Solutions: By leveraging sister company, CORE Migration's, knowledge and expertise in application development and maintenance, CORE IT is able to offer e-business solutions. These fixed-price projects may include threat/risk assessment, needs assessment, architecture development, planning and implementation, testing, knowledge transfer and maintenance. Permanent Recruitment/Executive Search: CORE IT provides access to high caliber, top quality IT professionals available for permanent placement in a timely, effective, and cost efficient manner. These services include needs analysis, candidate identification, interview process, technical interview, candidate selection and reference selection. The ability to provide resources in a timely and accurate manner is under the direction and control of the Director of Sales and Marketing. The key point of contact for any projects entered into is Alexis R. Williamson, Director of Sales and Marketing for CORE IT Information Technology Consultants Ltd. Alexis is also responsible for Service Management Delivery, and as such, will manage the quality assurance functions of service delivery according to the Principles of Quality Management and the Terms and Conditions of the contract. Alexis is well versed in the principals of Best Practices and is trained in ITIL Foundations in IT Service Management Essentials. Alexis is also responsible for strategic positioning, sales, marketing, client support, recruitment, research and business development. Alexis has been working in the Information Technology Consulting Services field for over 13 years and brings a vast amount of experience and expertise, having held similar positions with firms in Canada and the United Kingdom, including The Application System Group (ASG), CNC Global, Technical Employment Services (TES) and Hunt Personnel. She has extensive experience in strategic development with local and international clientele in both the Private and Public sectors. She has studied in the Bachelor of Commerce, Honours program at both Dalhousie University and University of Ottawa, has recently been ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) trained with Pink Elephant and has been certified at the Honeywell Institute for Local Area Network Administration. CORE IT E-Bulletin Keeps You Up-to-Date CORE IT is pleased to offer its clients, prospects, contract consultants and other interested parties, a bimonthly e-bulletin that will deliver the information you need to keep up-to-date on the IT professional services industry. Feature articles will report on: - Best practices in professional IT services delivery - Canadian IT employment trends - Salary surveys - Company news and special offers The Ask the Expert section provides advice on topics of interest as expressed by our readers. We are relying on you to let us know what questions you have. Please send them to editor@coreitconsultants.com. Each issue will also contain a Quick Poll that will pose a question to you, our readers. Each poll will be designed to take a pulse on trends relating to the IT services industry that would be of interest to our readers. You can be assured that the information you provide is collected for statistical purposes only and will be kept strictly confidential. For the Employer Look Beyond the Salary Bottom Line The Hidden Costs of Hiring Employees versus Contract Consultants Your first impression as an employer may be that hiring contract consultants is significantly higher than employees. While it is often true that the hourly compensation rate for a consultant can exceed that of a full-time employee, there are many other costs associated with full-time employees that need to be included in your evaluation. Once these expenses are factored in, the comparison of the hourly rates is surprisingly different. Some of the additional costs for full-time employees include: - Health Benefits Paying for health insurance benefit plans for employees can cost up to 15 percent of your payroll, not to mention the cost of administering the policies. - Sick Leave and Vacation Pay Employers are obligated to cover the cost of absences for employees. Sick leave is one such hidden cost that employers pay for employees, but typically do not pay contract consultants. Vacation pay is another such cost that is at a minimum, six to eight percent of an employee's salary. - Payroll Burden Taxes Employers must remit payroll burden taxes for each employee, but not for contract consultants. These taxes include significant payments into CPP (Canadian Pension Plan), EI (Employment Insurance) and EHT (Employer Health Tax). The burden placed on your finance department rises as the number of employees increases. This includes administering payroll, doing remittances, completing T4 forms and others. - Pension Plans Most government organizations and large private entities offer employees pension plans. The cost for administering and paying into these programs is significant, and can represent upwards of 10 percent of an employee's salary. - Fringe Benefits Many full-time employees have come to expect fringe benefits and these benefits often become necessary for attracting and retaining employees. The cost of maintaining a company gym, parking expenses, company hosted events, and others can add up quickly. - Human Resources Costs There are human resources costs associated with employees that can be avoided by utilizing the services of contract consultants from an IT professional services organization. These include performance reviews, training and recruiting. In the recruiting process, human resources professionals must spend time initiating the process, reviewing a mountain of resumes to find a few qualified candidates, interviewing and checking references. Not to mention other expenses such as advertising, time spent by others in the review and interview process. IT professional services organizations, such as CORE IT, can provide you with fully qualified, prescreened candidates that will meet your needs. - Termination Expenses When hiring contract consultants, you can avoid the expenses that accompany the discharge of employees no longer needed. Canadian employment law states that employers must pay two week pay for every year of employment. However, in addition to this expense severance packages often include pay beyond the government minimum requirement, extended health care benefits, and training and employment services. - Equipment and Materials On occasion, contract consultants will not be required to work on-site at your office. When this happens, you avoid related expenses, including additional office space, supplies, equipment, computers and others. Contract consultants typically have their own work space and equipment. - Insurance Premiums With the addition of employees, insurance premiums increase. You need this coverage to protect the company against any workplace related injury. Hiring contract consultants that do not work on your premises avoids higher insurance premiums. Don't be hasty. In some cases, employees will be the choice that makes sense for your operation, but you should take the time to complete a full evaluation of all the expenses associated with employees versus contract consultants. You may be surprised at how much employees are really costing you. For more information on how CORE IT can help you find highly qualified contract consultants to meet your hiring needs, contact us at info@coreitconsultants.com or 613-271-3672. In the next issue… Cost analysis of hiring full-time employees versus contract consultants For the Consultant The Never-Ending Need for Knowledge Develop Skills to Stay at the Top of Your Game Continuous learning is fundamental to your long term success as a consultant. As Edwards Deming so aptly stated, "learning is not compulsory… neither is survival." There are a multitude of benefits you will reap by making education a priority and a regular practice. These benefits include the following: - Keeping up-to-date on emerging technology developments - Keeping abreast of industry and employment trends - Networking and sharing experiences with colleagues - Exploring opportunities to develop relationships and partnerships - Improving skills that will make you more productive in your current role - Developing skills that will maintain and improve your value to employers What are some ways to do this? - Join associations - Subscribe to newsletters, magazines and user groups - Participate in discussion groups - Read Web content and the latest books - Attend seminars, conferences and networking events To help you in your efforts to stay abreast in the field of Information Technology, we have complied a list of related associations and publications. Visit Links. Please let us know if you have come across any sources of valuable information that we should add to our list. We will continue to make updates throughout the year. In the next issue… Benefits of being incorporated versus self-employed |
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