Keeping up with technology means having your skills buffed to a high
shine. With training available in numerous locations, including Seattle,
SQLSoft has the electronic chamois ready. President
Steve Brugger chats about technology shifts, skill assessments, and new
sinks.
Why do you feel there's a need for what you provide?
As long as there are changes in technology there will always be a need
for training. The format of the training may change but professional
software developers and IT professionals understand that their skill
sets age rapidly. They need regular training to keep themselves
marketable in a global economy.
In a more immediate sense, all the platitudes you hear about the pace of
change increasing are true. And now companies are starting to realize
that it's not enough to manage change, you have to manage change more
efficiently than the competition.
Change management is becoming a core IT skill and there are few places
to turn to where change management and IT technical skills are
successfully integrated. If anything, the need for the services we
provide is becoming more and more critical.
How did the company come to be the first to be certified by Microsoft to
use its software assessment tool and process?
SQLSoft has always positioned itself at the forefront of technology with
an eye towards future. We've actually been beating the skills
assessments drum since the late 1990's so when we learned that Microsoft
was going to be investing in skills assessments, we were all over it.
Our heads were already wrapped around the process, so we just needed to
learn a new tool. We hosted the first training class on the Microsoft
tool and we haven't looked back.
What are some of the challenges you face as a company?
Like a lot of businesses in the technology field, the post dot-com era
has been tough. A lot of companies see training as something that can be
easily cut when budgets are rolled back. The worst of it seems to be
behind us and we've come out the other side a stronger company with
fewer competitors. We're also a lot more efficient with a bunch of
automated business practices.
Organizations are realizing that technology is a core component of their
business processes that must be managed rather than just installed like
a new sink.
That has led to even more focus on an organization's IT investments,
which includes their IT staff, whether in-house or outsourced. We've
seen this coming and have really invested in tools that allow our
customers to manage and measure what we refer to as their human supply
chain.
In addition, technology advances continue to broaden the availability of
training in other formats such as online. We're also seeing colleges and
university making efforts to introduce commercial software skills into
their curriculum. On the infrastructure and delivery side of IT
training, instructor-led, classroom delivery is still the most effective
vehicle in terms of student information retention.
But as the technology improves and best practices are identified,
blended solutions, combining instructor-led and some component of online
delivery are becoming much more viable. SQLSoft+ has been involved in
blended delivery solutions since 1995, so we have quite a bit of
experience in this area, but it's still an immature area with an
evolving business model.
What do you like best about what you do?
I guess I'm a bit of a change junkie. Personal computers and their use
at home and in business have had a profound effect on societies
throughout the world. It's fun to work near the epicenter, doing
something that helps people thrive on that change.
do you know a Seattle company we should cover? Let us know about it.
Send your local profile candidates to emillard@computeruser.com.
