Archives for May 2015

Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support

GEN301_logo_2President & CEO of Fidelis Companies, Karen Richards, attended the Genesis Annual Luncheon on May 5 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX to support one of her many philanthropic events. Genesis hosted an Annual Luncheon to celebrate 30 years of “Safety, Shelter, and Support”.

Mission Statement

“Our mission is to end domestic violence against women and children by stopping victimization and reducing the devastating impact of family violence through safety, shelter, and expert services to battered women and children.”

Annual Luncheon

The keynote speaker at this inspirational event was Maria Shriver, mother of four, NBC News special anchor, and Emmy-winning journalist. She enjoys reporting on the shifting roles, emerging power, and evolving needs of women in modern life. Maria is dedicated to influencing people to make an impact on our world. 

It is because of the generous Dallas community that Genesis can continue to offer life-saving and life-changing services at no cost to clients.

“Thank you Dallas for your support over the past 3 decades.”

Statistics

  • Females age 18-34 experience the highest rate of relationship abuse
  • 1 in 4 women aged 18+ in the US have been a victim of physical violence
  • On average, 24 people per minute are victim to rape, stalking, or physical abuse

Join the conversation: #GENESISAT30

http://www.genesisshelter.org

Take Advantage of LinkedIn

LinkedIn

LinkedIn: the website that helps you find the right people and the connections you have with them. It used to be impossible to know who was connected and how, but now with LinkedIn showing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd connections is of tremendous value for networking. In today’s society it is all about who you know if you want to get recommendations and stay top of mind.

There are currently over 347 million LinkedIn users- most of which do not use the site to its greatest potential. It is one of the most popular social networking sites for professionals and businesses, a great way to stay connected or find new job opportunities. Members should remember these key points I have found with LinkedIn: be an active member, strategically connect, follow company pages and join many groups. It may also be a smart idea to customize your public URL, so people can find you easier based on your experiences or keywords.  

Before I started looking for internships I updated my personal profile, making sure all jobs and responsibilities were uniform, so my page flowed flawlessly. I had multiple people read it over and take a professional headshot of me for my profile picture. I joined more groups and thought of every service or active group I had been apart of, because employers look for that. They want well-rounded, determined individuals who go above and beyond in everything they do. I started connecting with adults I knew, then searched for companies (Coca Cola, Heinz, UPS) they were connected with, learning more about how to network along the way. Then I connected with managers who had a job I was interested in, mostly in the Marketing or Advertising fields. I would send them a message on LinkedIn, and would get excited with many quick responses back, where these managers would ask for my resume and email. This invigorated me. I felt empowered when they said I was a “go-getter”, impressed by my persistence, and they wanted to keep in touch.

LinkedIn allows you to do an Advanced Search; where you can specify keywords, location, industry, and what company you’re interested in finding. Forbes recently posted an article under Leadership titled, “7 Ways to Make LinkedIn Help Find You A Job” (link below) which outlines ways to make your LinkedIn profile more powerful to possible employees. Learning how to sell yourself and successfully highlight your strengths is a vital part of updating your LinkedIn profile.

Megan Butz

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/04/25/7-ways-to-make-linkedin-help-you-find-a-job/

Thinking ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

The situation in our section of the industry has been interesting over the past 12-18 months.  Our department focuses on PeopleSoft and Lawson primarily, and both are in the midst of a period where the majority of the customer base is facing the choice of upgrading to the latest versions, or paying for extended support on their current versions.  The need to upgrade has historically been a matter of when rather than if, but in the past those timing sequences for the respective systems have never coincided as closely as they are now. 

Beyond the upgrade or extend decision, customers have plenty of reason to invest in significant projects for their enterprise software to support their business.  Oracle and Infor have both been racing to compete in the cloud solution space, as well as enabling web-based applications, expanding functionality for mobile devices, and growing their selection of industry vertical specific modules to help customers get the most out delivered functionality and reduce or eliminate the need for extensive customizations to fit their particular processes. 

Another driving factor for project work has been an uptick in mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and other large corporate transitions that create a considerable amount of work for employee data and business process migrations.  Clients see the value in getting this kind of project experience for their internal employees, so they’ll look to augment their staff on the daily production support side, while those internal staff gain the valuable project based experience. This experience helps ensure a more self sufficient company well into the future. 

The surge in projects is creating a tighter, talent-driven market, and the demand for qualified resources has been impacting our clients’ ability to hire and retain full-time staff.  As quickly as clients hire or develop talent in-house, those people are being recruited for lucrative, exciting, and skill-set building consulting work.  The trend is causing many of my customers to show more interest in a managed services model for long term, process-driven technical support engagements. 

From a Business Development perspective, it’s maybe never felt more important to be thoughtful and strategic about how you invest your time and with whom you invest it.  Understanding industry ebbs and flows, fiscal year cycles, and the impact of national economic factors are all influencing what you get out of what you put in. 

 

Mike Simonson, CTS

Infor/Oracle Business Development

The Path to Success

teams_building_scuccess_w640What makes one succeed? Is it the money which motivates them? Is it their need for achievement? Is it their passion and drive, or maybe their positive attitude? Here are some helpful tips to succeed in your career:

1. Take Responsibility. Do not blame others and start owning up to your mistakes (or those of your company). The best leaders are those who take responsibility and do not point their finger at somebody else. If you want things to be better, make them better. Like discipline, responsibility is one of those words you’ve heard so much from authority figures you’ve developed a bit of an allergy to it. Yet, it is still one of the most important things to learn in life. Without having responsibility as a foundation, nothing else here will work.

2. Work Hard. Go above and beyond the call of duty; colleagues will look up to you, and it will get you far. Show that you are dedicated, passionate, and capable. Don’t say it “isn’t my problem”- it may not be your responsibility, but do what you can anyway. Take on more responsibility; suggest a program that can help your business or employees. Aim for better jobs and promotions; do whatever you can to succeed.

3. Goal Planning. Make a list of your short term and long term objectives. Begin executing your small objectives while keeping in mind the end goal. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Always have a backup plan if things don’t go your way. Break your goal into steps; does opening an IT company seem impossible? Break it down, focus on getting funding, then move on to building a prototype, etc. Having a vision makes it possible to obtain your goals.

4. Live Optimistically. Get the negative out of your system; let go of things that drain your energy, you deserve to be happy. Feeding your mind positive thoughts is beneficial to the mind and body. If watching the news makes you sad, stop watching it! Indulge your passions, find positive people, follow your dreams, and of course, laugh.

5. Take Care of You. You surely do not want to put in all this effort and not be able to enjoy life because you haven‘t had time to take care of yourself. It is important to make time to relax and enjoy the little things. Start up yoga, exercise weekly, read a good book out on the porch, play with the dog, or splurge on that delicious looking ice cream cone.

 

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”

 

Megan Butz